Message from the President

History of FirstMate

Following careers as a commercial fisherman for many years and later chief executive officer of a multimillion dollar fish processing and marketing enterprise, Michael Florian founded Taplow Feeds in 1989. The company was named for his fishing vessel the M.V. Taplow. Taplow Feeds was originally founded for the manufacture of fish feed for the burgeoning aquaculture industry in British Columbia. Having personally experienced the decline of the traditional wild fishery, Michael saw that an opportunity existed in aquaculture. 

At that time, when the British Columbia aquaculture industry was in its infancy, the farms were allowed to keep dogs on their sites to work as guard dogs.  These dogs kept predators at bay.  The fish farmers found out that their dogs were eating some of the high quality fish feed produced by Taplow Feeds.  Over the next few months, the dogs’ coats were getting shinier and the owners saw that they were also putting on weight.  They asked Taplow Feeds if it was possible to create a dog food with the same high quality fish meal that went into the fish feed but not the same quantity.  Taplow obliged and made the first fish-based dog food available to these guard dogs.  FirstMate was born.

In the early years FirstMate was co-packed.  This outsourcing meant a lower initial investment but at times it also meant compromising quality and services to our growing customer base.  In 1994, Taplow / FirstMate invested in its own production facility and located it in the Okanagan Valley of the interior of British Columbia. Emphasis was placed on quality and manufacturing.  In 2004, a new factory was bought and built in Chilliwack where today’s facility is located.

Having emphasized quality control, gentle and good manufacturing processes, and with vast experience in the fishing and aquaculture industry, FirstMate is now producing some of the highest standards of pet foods in the world.  Our facility is regularly inspected by Canadian government inspectors, by United States government Inspectors and by the European Union.

In 1995 FirstMate Pet Foods introduced a grain free formula consisting predominantly of Fish meal and Potato.  It has proven to be a very successful product.  FirstMate now has an expanded line of grain free products as well as traditional pet food formulations that have proven track records.  We are proud of our history and look forward to providing safe and nutritious foods to our own pets and to those of our thousands of customers.