An Abbotsford company is the recipient of the Vancouver Family Enterprise of the Year Achievement Award (FEYA).
Valley Pulp and Sawdust Carriers and the Klassen family receives the award on Thursday, April 4 from the Vancouver chapter of the Canadian Association of Family Enterprise (CAFE).
The local company is now a finalist for the national FEYA, presented annually by CAFE.
Valley Carriers was founded in 1963, when Neil Klassen purchased their first truck to haul firewood and sawdust from local sawmills to farms.
Years later, his children and their children are involved. The company's fleet of 20 trucks travels more than one million kilometres each year, transporting wood residuals such as sawdust, bark mulch and hog fuel for use in agriculture, landscaping, and the pulp and paper industry.
The company employs more than 50 people, with 20 members of the Klassen family involved in day-to-day operations from locations in Abbotsford, Maple Ridge and Merritt.
Past recipients of the Vancouver FEYA include: Purdy's Chocolates and the Flavelle family (2012), the McLaughlin family of Grouse Mountain (2010), the Porte family of Porte Realty Ltd. (2009) and ABC Recycling (2008).