Cooke’s core purpose is ‘To cultivate the ocean with care, nourish the world, provide for our families, and build stronger communities’.
(February 2, 2022) – Blacks Harbour, NB – Cooke Aquaculture has been recognized as one of Atlantic Canada’s Top Employers for 2022 by Mediacorp Canada Inc., a specialty publisher of employment-related periodicals in partnership with Atlantic Business magazine.
The award recognizes companies that are desirable places to work based on criteria including physical workplaces, work atmosphere, benefits, vacation and time off, employee communications, performance management, training and development and community involvement.
Since 1985, Cooke has grown from a small, family salmon farming company with a handful of employees into a world leader in farmed and wild seafood. As the business has grown, so has the company’s commitment to its people and its communities locally and globally.
CEO Glenn Cooke says the employees have always been key to the company’s success. “I really think that our employees at Cooke are different. They’re very committed,” Cooke said. “They’re loyal to the company and they’re loyal to our communities. They’re the lifeline.”
Cooke Aquaculture has recently been able to add to its benefits programs to include a Group Retirement Savings plan with a company match as well as Optional Health Benefits allowing employees to obtain additional insurance coverage at low group rates.
These are in addition to benefits the company has offered for many years including health and dental coverage, an employee and family assistance program and an overall wellness program that uses a social platform to support physical and mental health and wellbeing.
The company has continued to demonstrate resilience during the pandemic and has been able to safely remain productive during these challenging times.
“Our employees have shown a big commitment to keeping this company going and keep fresh, healthy seafood in grocery stores in the face of a critical situation with the pandemic,” Cooke said.
As a family company, Cooke has always supported its home communities and with operations in every Atlantic province, the positive impact is widespread. Cooke Aquaculture and its employees support local and regional organizations in a variety of ways including corporate giving, fundraising events and voluntary payroll deductions.
New for 2021 was an employee-driven campaign called Buck A Pay for the IWK in which employees were given the option to donate $1 per biweekly pay to the IWK Health Centre. The program was suggested by an employee who credits the IWK with saving his son’s life.
The Buck A Pay concept caught on and the IWK Foundation, through the Air Canada Foundation, provided a prize with one contributor winning two tickets to fly anywhere in North America.
Cooke has also been community-minded in making business decisions, including a recent office expansion to support a growing workforce. After outgrowing office space in Saint John, the company took on the challenge of salvaging a provincially designated historic site from the wrecking ball and transformed a former synagogue, originally a Calvinist church, into an office space. The newly renovated Cooke office building is hailed as a successful example of built-heritage conservation and sustainable adaptive reuse in Canada.
“To me, it’s important to give back to the communities everywhere that we operate and it’s about the greater Cooke family – Team Cooke,” Glenn Cooke said.
As the company continues to grow, the range of career opportunities continues to widen in the Atlantic region and beyond.
At mycookecareer.com, job seekers can view current employment listings, apply online and create a profile and sign up for notifications when jobs of interest are posted.
Current openings include jobs working on the water and in processing operations as well as in areas such as accounting, IT, marketing, process improvement and transportation.
Contact:
Joel Richardson
Vice President, Public Relations
Cooke Aquaculture Inc. +1 (506) 721-1093 mobile / +1 (506) 694-4900 office
Other Files:
Press Release (PDF)
