Harvey & Co.

For more than three centuries, Harvey & Company Limited has been one of Newfoundland's most successful business enterprises. Initially, the company was primarily engaged in the fish trade, but it also became involved in various manufacturing enterprises such as the production of furniture, margarine, soap, matches, and tobacco. The company also constructed Newfoundland's first pulp mill at Black River, Placentia Bay, in 1898, and operated a slate quarry at Britannia. In the 1890s, Harvey & Company Limited became directly involved in the Fortune Bay fishery and was a major player in the south coast fishery, shipping fish to foreign markets in Europe and the West Indies on their foreign-going vessels. The firm owned extensive premises at 87-91 Water Street, on the north side of St. John's Harbour. From this location, it carried on business as shipowners and steamship agents. Throughout the 1930s, it was also Newfoundland's largest exporter of frozen fish.

The company was founded by Eugenius Harvey, who came to St. John's from Bermuda in 1820 to work at one of the last surviving branches of the Bermuda Trading Company. A. W. Harvey, Eugenius' nephew, arrived from Bermuda in 1860 to join the company one year before the firm changed its name to Harvey, Tucker and Company. The firm became incorporated as Harvey & Company Limited in 1913. A. Harvey & Company Limited -- a sister company formed by Alexander J. Harvey in 1865 -- was incorporated in 1914. Harvey & Company Limited was re-incorporated in 1937 and in 1947, with A. Harvey & Company Limited maintaining the majority of shares in both instances; After confederation, Harvey & Company Limited withdrew from the fishery and diversified its interests. The firm began a wholesale grocery business and, in 1953, opened a heavy-equipment sales and repair business. The company abandoned the grocery trade in the 1970s, but the heavy-equipment business continued. Harvey & Company Limited formed Harvey's Travel Agency in 1935 as a subsidiary company and opened branch operations throughout Newfoundland and Atlantic Canada

Created - April 25, 2013

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