Emerging Business of the Year
King Aquaculture
 Originally from Cap-Lumière, Armand King is a fisherman by trade. It was in 1969 that he and his partners at Village Bay Oysters attempted to cultivate oysters without much success. After several attempts, they abandoned the idea because of a lack of technical resources at the time. The name of the company was then changed to Village Bay Sea Products, and in order to ensure its survival, they started processing clams and rock crab. Armand King continued fishing until 1976. He also worked for Canadian Pacific Railways. Later on, he taught Administration at the Fisheries College and in 1976 he became a community development officer for Fisheries and Oceans. The development program was cut from Fisheries and Oceans in 1986 and he went back to fishing until 1996. When he retired, Armand turned to Village Bay Sea Products to fill his spare time. After four years however, he needed a new challenge.
It was in 2001 that the province succeeded in convincing Armand King to cultivate oysters. He consulted specialists in the field and thanks to modern methods of technology that helped reduce the risk of loss, in 2002, he produced 50,000 oysters.
The following season, the company increased its number of oysters to 700,000. Today, the company cultivates one and a half million oysters a year. “I was convinced that there was enormous potential and that there was a market”, states Armand King. In 2007, King Aquaculture will be in its fourth year of cultivating one and a half million oysters a year. “I never thought it would come to this! I started this out as a hobby!”, explains Armand.
Since the production of oysters is a process that takes almost four years before bearing fruit, the challenge facing King Aquaculture is that it must invest before turning a profit. An initial investment of close to $800 000 was necessary before reaping any dividends. Furthermore, from spring into fall, the company hires five people to take care of the cages on the water and another four people, for eight to ten weeks, to clean the cages. King Aquaculture has also equipped itself with a system that allows them to act quickly when the time comes to bring out the oyster cages in early spring.
According to Armand, it is crucial to be persistent and have the drive to succeed in business. He insists that he has been blessed because he has the means to take a financial risk and follow his retirement dreams. He also believes that people still have a lot to offer even when they have reached the traditional age of retirement.
Armand admits that there is still a lack of knowledge on the part of the public, as far as aquaculture is concerned.
His goal is to prove that the people from New Brunswick’s southeastern region are capable of cultivating oysters as well as anyone else. Today, King Aquaculture is Village Bay Sea Products’ main supplier of oysters. And as for this company, it will soon be distributing value-added products under the President’s Choice banner.
Within the next three years, Armand King foresees that the products derived from the oyster production should account for one third of Village Bay Sea Products’ sales. He estimates that 75 percent of the oysters cultivated can be marketed after a period of four years, since a special new law now allows oyster producers to sell smaller sized products.
Congratulations to King Aquaculture, the Emerging Business of the Year!
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