AMHERST – An Amherst insurance company has been named one of three finalists for the 2013 Family Enterprise of the Year Achivement Award for Nova Scotia.
Archway Insurance, formerly known as Barnes Insurance, is up for the award along with Able Electric/Trail Blazer Products Ltd. of Dartmouth and Fairway Insurance Services. The businesses will be profiled at the Canadian Association of Family Enterprise awards luncheon in Dartmouth on March 7.
"These three families are great exampls of successful family enterprises. The are defying the statistics that reveal only a little more than 30 per cent of family businesses survive into the second generation, even though 80 per cent would like to keep the business in the family," association Nova Scotia president Greg Leslie said in a news release.
The award is sponsored by BMO Harris Private Banking.
Archway got its start in 1985 when Garry Stack left the banking world and purchased a small insurance company in Yarmouth and worked with his wife, Jane, building the business.
In 1988, the company expanded to Shelburne and later Amherst, where the Stacks entered a partnership with Robert Barnes to form Barnes Insurance.
Garry's son, Mike, joined the business several years ago to handle the commercial lines. The company has expanded in Amherst over the years and in 2011 was rebranded Archway Insurance with other family members joining the business.
Archway Insurance is now one of the top brokerages in the Atlantic region, employment approximately 50 people.
