Working With Collections: Part III

"The Reindeer Brand" Local Plants

In December 1915 the Borden Milk Company acquired the B.C. Milk Condensing Company located at South Sumas. Three large Borden plants already existed in eastern Canada including one in Truro, Nova Scotia. The Borden Company invested $75,000 to enlarge and improve the former B.C. Milk Condensing Company plant, and obtained their milk supply from the Fraser Valley Milk Producers’ Association. By 1926 Borden’s South Sumas plant was producing 60,000 pounds of milk per day and from 1937 to 1947 they averaged 90,000 cases of evaporated milk over a nine to ten month season. Their well-known condensed milk products included “Reindeer”, “Eagle” and “St. Charles” brands. Due to insufficient milk supplies, as the F.V.M.P.A. was having difficulty meeting its own milk requirements, Borden’s decided to close their operation in 1947. The plant was acquired later in the year by Canada Packers Ltd. and converted into a fruit and vegetable cannery.

I wonder if anyone has seen wooden boxes for either the Eagle or St. Charles brands? Borden’s St. Charles brand is probably derived from another milk condensing company called the St. Charles Company.