Northwest Food Products has been operating as a Canadian family business since 1950.

John and Josephine Mar, who had dreams of having more than a job driving trucks or sewing clothes, purchased the company all those years ago. Back then, the company was only two years old, having been established in 1948, and was located in a busy neighbourhood on Georgia Street in Vancouver, B.C. The proud new owners took up the challenge of food manufacturing specializing in Chinese noodles, but appealing to the non-Chinese palate. They began modestly producing two cases of noodles a day. John's charisma eventually won over some business from the Chinese Canadian restaurants and sales grew ever since. In fact, Northwest Food Products was likely responsible for feeding the mass of university and college students who frequented those operations back in the 60's and 70's. Where John's strength was in sales, Josephine's strength was in production. She took control of the production line and increased the capacity of the plant to meet the increasing demand in sales. They complimented each other like bread and butter - or rather - noodles and sauce.

John and Josephine Mar are both natives of our very own Vancouver Island. One was born in a logging town and the other in a mining town. They grew up within short miles of each other and were eventually matched by a professional Chinese matchmaker for an arranged marriage. In the course of their lives together prior to their noodle business, they were trapped in Shanghai for two years during the war between China and Japan while visiting family, moved to Vancouver from the Island once they returned to Canada from Shanghai, and had three children. Of their three children, one decided to carry on the family business.

Tony Mar helped out in the plant every summer for as long as memory serves.

He helped on the production line, he helped in shipping, and he helped in administration. He was, after all, the boss's son. Tony received a bachelors degree at the University of British Columbia in Commerce specializing in accounting but his true passion was in engineering. When he began working at the plant full time in 1967, Tony already had visions of automating the plant using engineering skills he had acquired during his years at university. His strength in engineering boosted efficiencies while raising the quality and consistency of the products being manufactured. His accounting background increased record keeping to facilitate more effective use of the company's financial resources. Tony's keen financial sense allowed the acquisition of buildings over the course of several years to accomodate the company's steady growth. In 1983, John passed on the presidency to Tony.

Sandra Mar, Tony's wife, entered the company in 1981 to help out on the production lines and store front. Her strength on the production line rivals Josephine's. Sandra also played an intregral part in the acquisition of the company's first national retail distributor, who introduced FARKAY noodles to the mainstream public. Before being represented by a distributor, FARKAY products were sold mainly to restaurants and specialty Chinese retail stores; major supermarkets didn't carry much in Asian foods. FARKAY products now reach as far east as Newfoundland and have recently begun reaching markets south of the border.

Both Tony and Sandra grew up, were married, and bought a home here, in Vancouver. In the course of their lives, they grew this family business, played tennis together, and had three children. Of their three children, one decided to carry on the family business.

Jason Mar helped out in the plant since his twelfth birthday on the production line.

Jason received his bachelors degree at the University of British Columbia in Agricultural Science and continues to study marketing at the British Columbia Institute of Technology. He began his full time career at Northwest Food Products in 1992. His strength revolves around research for the company.

Northwest Food Products works closely with the regulatory agents to ensure that our company produces safe, high quality foods in a safe and clean environment. And for those who are less fortunate than we are, Northwest Food Products also makes weekly donations to the Greater Vancouver Food Bank Society to help those people in need.

Northwest Food Products is striving to make continuous improvements to our family of products, to our production facilities and processes, and to our customer service. In fact, Northwest Food Products changed distributors to Preisco Foods as of July 1998 to make the FARKAY products more available to our customers. This partnership will produce benefits ranging from new ideas to real solutions for today's family meal planning.

Feel free to email us to make comments, suggestions, or ask questions about our company or products and we'll be glad to get back to you.

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