The Label Unwrapped – Shafer-Haggart Ltd

“The Label Unwrapped: The History of Canned Salmon Labels” is the Gulf of Georgia Cannery National Historic Site’s current feature exhibit, which recently opened in May 2019. In this blog series Shannon King, Manager of Audience Engagement, shares some insight into the new exhibit and the colourful stories behind the labels. 

The Mountie Brand label for chum salmon featured in the previous blog in this series was produced by Shafer-Haggart Ltd., a Vancouver based company that was an agent for the sale and distribution of canned salmon.  

Agents were businesses that either distributed canned salmon on behalf of a cannery or bought the canned salmon from a cannery and then re-sold it for a profit.  These firms would have offices or partners in other countries to coordinate the sale of the product overseas. In addition to salmon canneries, these import/export companies also profited from the salmon canning industry in British Columbia.  

You can explore the company’s current products and branding on their website. They are still involved in the distribution of canned salmon!