The North West Company

The North West Company Inc.
Public
Traded as TSX: NWC
Industry Grocery, Fur, General Merchandise
Founded 1987
Headquarters Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Key people
 Edward S. Kennedy, President & CEO
Number of employees
 6,805 [1]
Website www.northwest.ca

The North West Company Inc. is a Canadian multinational grocery and retail company which operates stores in Western Canada, Northern Canada, Alaska, Hawaii, and several other countries and US territories in Oceania and the Caribbean.

The company traces its history back to the North West Company, a fur trading business headquartered in the city of Montreal in British North America from 1779 to 1821.[2] It was merged into the Hudson's Bay Company in 1821. The enterprise continued as the Fur Trade Department, and then the Northern Stores Division of Hudson's Bay Company. In 1987, the division was acquired by a group of investors and in the 1990s it was relaunched as The North West Company. It is now a publicly traded company and is composed mainly of the old HBC Northern Stores Division. The Alaska Commercial Company, which makes up The North West Company's Alaskan operations, traced its roots back to the Russian-American Company.

Brief history

The French controlled much of what is now Canada in the early 1700s. As a result, their traders had a large fur trading network. After the conquest of New France by the British in 1763, French traders founded the North West Company and continued expanding their fur trade into the Canadian interior. The competition with the Hudson's Bay Company led to a massive environmental impact with numerous fur trade posts being built, the interior of Canada being explored, and the beaver population being exhausted. The fur trade created conflict which increased tensions between the British, French and the Aboriginals.[3]

Current operations

Northern Store in Moosonee, Ontario.
Northern Store in Fort Resolution, Northwest Territories.

The North West Company's head office is located in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, built partly on the site of Upper Fort Garry. This building used to serve as the head office of the Hudson's Bay Company. It also operates two offices in the United States cities of Anchorage, Alaska and Bellevue, Washington.

As of 2014, the North West Company had 4,921 employees in Canada and 1,726 employees in its international operations in Alaska, the South Pacific, and the Caribbean.[4] and was the largest employer of Aboriginal people in the business sector.

The company operates stores under these banners:[4]

Canadian operations

International operations

The Link Financial Services (AC Financial) is the Canadian division operates a series of automatic teller machines (ATM) in each store, and offers the Link Debit Card, Link Credit Card and Link Prepaid Visa (jointly with Scotiabank).[6]

Further reading

  • Ahrens, Merv. Fort Lac La Pluie of the North West Company, 177?-1821. Fort Frances, Ontario: Fort Frances Times Ltd, 2006.

References

  1. ↑ "Company Profile for North West Co Fund (CA;NWF.UN)". Retrieved 2008-10-15.
  2. ↑ Official site
  3. ↑ Macdowell, Laurel Sefton. "An Environmental History of Canada". University of British Columbia: UBC Press, 2012.
  4. 1 2 "The North West Company Inc. 2014 Annual Report" (PDF). The North West Company. Retrieved 23 July 2015.
  5. ↑ http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/north-west-company-purchases-airline-1.4091988
  6. ↑ Link Financial
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