Tag Archives: Clearwater chair Colin MacDonald

The man who changed Canada’s lobster industry and his $1B deal to sell Clearwater

In Nova Scotia, John Risley is arguably a household name, synonymous with the seafood industry and his many conspicuous possessions. On both fronts, his reputation is well earned. In 1976, he and his brother-in-law Colin MacDonald started Clearwater, a dumpy retail lobster shop on the side of a suburban Halifax highway. From that simple start, Risley fundamentally changed the Atlantic Canadian lobster industry ­— transforming it from a seasonal, afterthought business to a year-round, $3-billion sector where lobsters are shipped overnight by air to customers in Europe and Asia, a premise unheard of before Risley entered the industry. Along the way, Clearwater matured into a global seafood company. >click to read< 07:43

Clearwater sold for $1 billion, Mi’kmaq First Nations to control half of company

In a billion-dollar deal, Clearwater Seafoods Incorporated has been sold to a coalition of Mi’kmaq First Nations and Premium Brands Holdings Corporation. The two entities will each own 50 per cent of the new company.,, The deal has been unanimously approved by Clearwater’s board of directors but is subject to approval by shareholders, says a release from the company. The release says the deal signals a massive change in the Canadian fisheries sector, “catapulting First Nations into a leading global position in the seafood industry.” >click to read< 20:17