Article
Fur Industry
The Canadian fur industry consists of companies that buy raw furs from trappers, dealers or fur-marketing companies (e.g., Hudson's Bay Company raw-fur auctions), send them to fur dressers and dyers in Toronto, match the skins and cut and sew them into garments. Most manufacturers make coats and most specialize in two or three types of fur only. Before the coat can be finished, it must go through a fur-cleaning process and some companies do only this. Some cleaners also maintain cold fur-storage vaults to house furs during the summer, but many retail furriers also have their own vaults. Fur factories are generally small, with 279 of the 280 factories employing fewer than 50 people; only one of the 280 operating factories employed more than 100 people in 1986. In that year there were 3,700 furriers in the manufacturing work force, with about 2950 in Quebec, 675 in Ontario and 75 in Manitoba. Almost all fur companies are Canadian owned; there is some foreign ownership, mainly American, in the retail sector and some Japanese investment in the manufacturing sector.
