By Andrew Macdonald
For the second summer in a row—and in an historical development—Lunenburg fish processor High Liner has returned to the cod fishery.
The company’s only remaining Nova Scotia plant at Battery Point in Lunenburg is supplying cod for the popular cod burgers at A&W stores in Atlantic Canada.
Former High Liner chairman Henry Demone, who was chief execuive officer for three decades, has confirmed the company is back in the cod fishery.
High Liner Foods in Lunenburg is supplying A & W restaurants with its cod burgers, which are being retailed until July 8. I had one, and it was delicious!
“The products are produced in Lunenburg from sustainably sourced cod,” Demone said in an email to The Macdonald Notebook. “It is a burger format rather than a stick,” he added.
He did not respond to follow up questions on who is catching the cod, and where, but it is likely being caught by South Shore commercial fishermen who participate in a small commercial cod fishery in Nova Scotia waters.
It is also known that some fish processed at Lunenburg is caught by foreign fishermen, including those from China, who fish in the Pacific.
Fifteen years ago, High Liner sold off its dedicated fishing fleet, which had been based in Lunenburg, a village founded in the late 1700s by German immigrants.
There is a recreation cod fishery on Nova Scotia’s South Shore, and a gully near the town of Mahone Bay is popular for sports fishermen who are limited by federal regulations in the number of cod they can catch.
The A & W outlet in Antigonish.
A&W is heavily promoting the cod burgers, which are being sold until July. A well known A&W spokesman did a TV advertisement with tourists eating the burgers on the Halifax boardwalk near Jim Spatz-owned and award-winning Bishop’s Landing.
Bishop’s Landing is home to the sophisticated condo, apartment and retail buildings designed by Lydon Lynch.
The A&W cod burgers are a popular item. I had one and it was great, although better designed for eating in store, rather than it in the car as it can be a bit messy.
I spoke to Jennifer Baudoux, the Atlantic Canada president of A&W, about the cod burgers. Baudoux, a native of Pictou County, is the franchise owner since 2009 of the Antigonish A&W.
“A lot of people like the cod burgers, for sure. Our Atlantic Canadian fish lovers like it for their taste buds,” she tells The Macdonald Notebook.
It’s being offered across Canada. A&W is headquartered in Vancouver. High Liner is supplying the Atlantic stores, while another seafood provider is supplying outlets in Western Canada.
A&W is on a growth track in the Atlantic, and in recent years opened a new store at Glenn Munro’s Dartmouth Crossing.
“In Atlantic Canada over the next number of years, we are putting in new restaurants,” said Baudoux. “We started that last year. I actually trained some of the franchisees to open some of those new stores, and I am training someone for Oromocto and Fredericton.”
Up to five new stores are going to open in Halifax Regional Municipality.
Over the next few years, 10 to 15 new A&W stores will open in Atlantic Canada, says Baudoux.
A&W retails a coffee for a cheap price of $1.30 and is my fave to-go java spot. Pictured is the Antigonish A&W.
Recently an A&W opened at Halifax Stanfield Airport. “There are a couple of more coming to Halifax area.”
The new Dartmouth Crossing franchisee—that store opened in 2018—is working on a couple of more Metro Halifax outlets, says Baudoux. She was not aware of whether any locations will be built on Peninsula Halifax.
Another outlet has operated for years at Bayers Lake Business Park.
Coffee at A&W is priced at $1.30, cheaper than the nearly two dollar cost at Tim Hortons. I am a dedicated A&W coffee fanatic with one cup a day there, plus my homemade coffee intake to kick start the day.
Here’s a story previously carried in The Macdonald Notebook about how Henry Demone and High Liner survived the collapse of the cod fishery 30 years ago:
In 1989, 30 years ago, Henry Demone became CEO of National Sea Products, a predecessor of frozen seafood provider publicly-traded High Liner Foods.
Back in 1989-90, High Liner faced an extremely tough environment, its very future up in the air as the cod fishery completely collapsed.
For two centuries, cod served as the mainstay economic engine of Atlantic Canada and the phrase In Cod We Trust had real meaning, but in 1989-90, the once plentiful fishery was over-fished and almost extinct.
Across the region, thousands of fish plant workers took off their hairnets and headed to the unemployment insurance offices. Small coastal towns, where fish plants were the single industry, faced an ignominious future.
Nowhere was this more so than the isolated Nova Scotia town of Canso, founded by Basque fisherman 400 years earlier.
National Sea lowered the boom on its plant in Canso, a plant that employed 800 workers.
Through sheer tenacity, Cansonians rose up against corporate Halifax, nabbing lots of national ink in the media, and winning over the hearts of many Canadians. Town mayor Ray White and Pat Fougere, a gifted orator and trawler union boss, fought for the survival of their small town.
A fresh-faced Henry Demone had recently taken over the company reins from legendary biz tycoon Bill Morrow.
I recently caught up with Demone, now a Chester resident, and we talked about the turbulent waters High Liner faced during the beginning of his time at the helm.
Back in 1989-90, colourful Fisheries Minister John Crosbie issued a cod moratorium across Atlantic Canada. Although highly controversial and devastating to many communities across the region, history has proven Crosbie did the right thing. Even now, the cod stock has yet to recover.
During my recent 48-minute chat with Demone, I came away realizing he is a business titan with savvy media and communicating skills learned during hundreds of media interviews during the year-long Canso Crisis.
I also realized his tenacious corporate leadership at High Liner helped sustain and give new life to the firm that had faced a bleak future.
High Liner survived the fishery collapse, but now only has operated one plant in Nova Scotia, located on the waterfront at Battery Road, in Lunenburg.
That is also where company headquarters remains, and where it churns out those famed fish sticks and widely popular frozen Pacific salmon fillets.
In the last year, Demone went from company CEO to its executive chairman.
“My first job at High Liner was export assistant in 1978, not long after the 200-mile fishing zone was created, and exports were booming and they were hiring lots of young folk.”
Demone graduated from Acadia University in 1976, and Dalhousie University in 1977.
“We have a big plant at Battery Point. Fish sticks are an important part of our production, but we do many things there, and production is growing,” Demone tells The Macdonald Notebook. “We just moved a number of new food products into the plant.”
Demone says the frozen Pacific salmon fillets debuted several years ago.
“There was a time when our Pacific salmon products were the best selling frozen food product in the country. I am not talking just about frozen seafood, but compared to any french fry or pizza product—any frozen dinner,” says Demone.
“We sold millions and millions and millions of pounds of that product, far more than fish sticks.”
The long-time High Liner logo on its frozen seafood packages shows a veteran sailing captain, an image dating to the 1980s, when on TV the captain would turn to a fish mate, and say: “Have you ever been to sea, Billy?”
“I can’t take any credit for that,” Demone says of the advertisement, during the glory years of TV ad branding.
“That was conceived by our VP of sales and marketing in Toronto, by the name of John MacNeil, who promoted the captain as a brand icon. The captain is still with us today in our branding.”
Demone acknowledges that being employed for 30 years by the same company is virtually unheard of today in corporate Canada.
“I had three jobs in the same role. One was saving the business, one was repositioning the company, and the other was growing the business,” he says.
About 10 years ago, High Liner sold off its dedicated fishing fleet and now only buys fish on the open market, including catches by Chinese fishermen.
Demone says he was part of a strong team that helped keep High Liner as a going concern after the cod collapse.
“It wasn’t just me. There were many people involved at all levels. There had to be a leader and I was fortunate enough to be their leader.
“It was tough. If you can imagine we were a resource-based company and 90 per cent of the resource disappeared, we had to do strategic planning, even in the tough days. Not many companies survive that, but the ones that do are mortally wounded and weakened. We survived and eventually grew again,” he says.
“I am proud of that. But my role was more like being the conductor of an orchestra than a soloist.”
Looking back at the Canso crisis, Demone says he was always impressed by Canso mayor Ray White.
“He’s the guy I came to admire during that whole period, which was stressful for everyone,” says Demone.
“I had a job to do. And Ray had a job to do, and I think he did it extremely well, with a lot of integrity and class, and I only came to respect Ray as he came through that, although we were on opposite sides of the issue.
“It was hard to keep fish plants open when there were no fish, and hard to keep the town alive when there was no fish plant.”
