Eddy Match Company
The Eddy Match Company is a manufacturer of matches. Founded in 1851, the company's original main product was wooden matches.
The company began manufacturing matches in Hull, Canada East in 1851 as the E. B. Eddy Company. Ezra Butler Eddy had started off in business making matches in Hull by hand, from wood discarded by local sawmills.
E. B. Eddy sold off its match division in 1927 and it was merged with World Match Corp. Ltd., Dominion Match Co. Ltd. and Canadian Match Co. Ltd.. The company became the first manufacturer of book matches in Canada in 1929 and was the largest producer of this product in Canada. Its operations included a second plant in Mission, British Columbia.
Eddy Match had a capital structure where 2/3 of the stock were held by British Match Corporation in London, England and 1/3 by Diamond Match in the United States. In the 1950s, Diamond Match sold its shares to the public in Canada by listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange. J. Alex Lawrason became President and CEO in June 1969 in Toronto, Ontario. He had joined the company in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1949, as a salesman.
The company operated a match factory in Pembroke, Ontario until 1998. The company was merged with Atlas Match of Euless, Texas, but still operates as Eddy Match.
During the 1960s and 1970s, other operations included:
- Ideal Vendor Company in Deseronto, Ontario which manufactured vending machines. Ideal Vendors made a variety of soft drink vending machines. The Sales office (& HO) of Ideal was in the Sun Life Building in Montreal. The last president was Dudley Sutherland. He travelled the world selling these machines and spent a lot of time doing so in Africa. The machine was unique in that it was a top-opener - the bottles were held on a rack by the neck. There were a number of parallel racks. The bottles were more air-cooled than cold. Inserting a coin allowed one bottle to be moved down the rack and out the dispensing end.
- Steel Equipment in Pembroke which manufactured steel office furniture
- Grant Industries in Vancouver which distributed building products. This company was identified as one of the Canadian distributors of zonolite products contaminated with asbestos which originated from Libby, Montana. The company was purchased in the mid-1950s and had branches right across Canada. The company was shut down and liquidated in 1971.
- Kootenay Forest Products in Nelson, British Columbia
- Harrow Lumber Company in Nelson, British Columbia
- Insulation Industries
- Eddy Match Co. in Berthierville, Quebec
- Eddy industrial Products. Started as a machine shop and in due course was manufacturing high-speed packaging machinery for light bulbs all of which were shipped to customers in the United States.
- W. W. Powell in Nelson, British Columbia. The company manufactured match blocks. The company was purchased in 1949 and closed in approximately 1954