This is part of a year-long ‘Love for Local’ series called NB365: portraits of New Brunswick entrepreneurs, businesses, and organizations. Huddle is a media partner with Love for Local. Today we feature Emily Corey of Corey Nutrition, in Fredericton.

WE ARE A FAMILY-OWNED AND OPERATED BUSINESS THAT STARTED 40 YEARS AGO. AT THE TIME, THERE WERE A LOT OF FISH FARMERS ON THE EAST COAST OF CANADA BUT A SHORTAGE OF QUALITY-MADE FOODS. MY FATHER, LEE, HAD BEEN WORKING AT A NEW BRUNSWICK FISH HATCHERY AND SAW A NEED FOR A LOCAL COMPANY TO PRODUCE FOOD FOR THIS BURGEONING INDUSTRY.

Shortly thereafter, Corey Nutrition was founded by my parents, Jane and Lee, to fill the demand of the local communities of New Brunswick.

As the market evolved, so did our business. In the mid-’90s, a local dogsled musher wandered into our facility looking to purchase fish food to feed his team. He was struggling to keep weight on his highly active dogs and needed something with more energy than what he could find on the pet food market.

We knew we could make him something more appropriate than fish food and from there we created our Inukshuk Professional Dog Food line specifically for highly active and working dogs. Today, we specialize in manufacturing pet food for the local community and 23 additional countries worldwide.

Corey Nutrition is now run by the second generation of Coreys. There are three of us involved in the business, alongside our two spokesdogs, Lux and Nova. We remain an independent, family-owned company. We were born into the business, we live in the local community, and we intentionally chose to keep our business here.

For us, local has many faces: it’s the local fish farmers and pet owners that have trusted us to keep their animals healthy; it’s the local fishermen and the farmers that supply the ingredients we need to make a quality diet; it’s the local mentors and supporters that have donated their time and advice on how to grow and evolve in the marketplace; it’s the local government that has supported our initiatives to sell our locally made foods in global markets.

All in all, the local community has helped create much of the success behind our company.

We believe in collectively working together to grow the community, for both humans and our pets. It is important for us to be involved and support the community whenever possible, as they do for us.