Oxford Frozen Foods Limited, headquartered in the small town of Oxford, Nova Scotia, processes 20 million lbs. of blueberries annually—50 per cent of Canadian production and 25 per cent of North American production—and has captured 50 per cent of the North American export market.

The company has some 300 full time staff at two modern fast-freezing plants in Nova Scotia and subsidiary operations in Maine. Nearly 3000 seasonal workers are employed at the peak of operations, picking fruit on thousands of acres of Oxfordowned land in Nova Scotia and Maine. The success of Oxford Frozen Foods, which had food sales in excess of $40 million in 1987, is a credit to the imagination and entrepreneurial skill of John Bragg, who brought an innovative approach to the use of technology and the implementation of unconventional marketing plans to a resourcebased industry.

In the late 1950's, to earn money during the summer to help pay university fees, Bragg organized local high school students to pick the abundant wild blueberries growing on his family's land which had been lumbered and had turned to scrub the preferred habitat of the small dark blue North American native blueberry.

Bragg realized that the real potential for profits was in processing and in 1968, using technology be imported from Pennsylvania, set up a plant for the relatively new industry of processing frozen foods.

As production capability grew, Bragg recognized the need to create new markets. The first offshore sales he developed were to Europe in the early 1970's.

The initial shipment was 41,000 lbs.—one freight container of frozen blueberries. By 1982, Canadian exports totalled 21,000,000 lbs.—500 containers.

Following success in Europe, about ten years ago Bragg began to focus on a more exotic and challenging market—Japan. The Japanese now utilize about ten per cent of Nova Scotia's production—three million pounds—for toppings, syrups, jams and even bubblegum.

The reason for Bragg's success with his product in Japan—his imagination, persistence and willingness to use technology to his advantage—are mirrored in all aspects of his approach to doing business.

Bragg was the first in the industry to utilize a mechanical harvester (invented by his brother, Douglas). To maximize plant use year round, Bragg augmented the short blueberry-processing season with off-season processing of carrots and frozen batterdipped onion rings. He has installed a customized computer program to streamline business systems, and also operates the largest cable TV network in Atlantic Canada.

John Bragg's influence is growing worldwide, with his acquisition of more resources in Maine, a multi-million dollar addition to the Oxford plant to be completed in 1988, and expansion into new markets.