Purvis Fish and Chips, based in Gore Bay, Ontario, is one of many Manitoulin Island businesses to receive Community Futures support and business advice from LaCloche Manitoulin Business Assistance Corporation (LAMBAC), a Community Futures Development Corporation.

A young entrepreneur, Avery Sheppard launched Purvis Fish and Chips in 2021 at the age of 18 with two goals in mind.  She wanted to address the lack of restaurants in the tourist town and to be able to manage the operation while continuing her studies. Three years later, the seasonal business boasts 11 employees – three more than when it started – and posted a 12 percent increase in sales over its recent season in 2022. Sheppard is the sixth generation to enter into her family’s fish business, continuing the tradition in a new way, serving freshly caught fish from the North Channel to locals and tourists alike.

Purvis Fish and Chips is located in a building owned by the Town of Gore Bay that overlooks the bay and beautiful Lake Huron. The town had attempted repeatedly to lease the building to a restaurants to meet the demand from locals and tourists alike; Purvis Fish and Chips has fulfilled that need while also bringing new people to the area looking for local fish.

Community Futures Ontario Funding Partners:

Rural businesses, organizations and communities are the cornerstone of Canada’s economy. To ensure rural Canadians are positioned for success, the Government of Canada, through the Federal Economic Development Agency for Northern Ontario (FedNor) and the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario), has invested in Community Futures Development Corporations (CFDCs) across northern and southern Ontario to provide businesses in their communities with access to the tools and support they need to succeed.

Purvis Fish and Chips Website: Click Here.

LAMBAC Website: Click Here.

Each CFDC offers free business counselling, flexible and repayable loans for new and existing small and medium sized businesses, strategic planning on local projects and community economic development in rural areas. CFDC offices are locally managed by a volunteer Board of Directors, mostly comprised of business people within their own communities.

From the outside it may seem like our offices are the same as many lenders and business development agencies. The truth is they are very different. Our members understand small business in rural Ontario like no one else. They live and work in the communities that you do, and know that rural communities thrive when small businesses do.

They care about your success. We all do.