Meat packer Olymel is set to close a chapter in its acquisition history when it shuts down two Montreal-area pork further-processing plants it bought five years ago.
Olymel, a division of ag co-operative Sollio, announced Wednesday it will close the former Aliments Triomphe plant at Blainville and its sister plant about 18 km southeast at Laval, both effective April 28.
Olymel CEO Yannick Gervais said in a release that the decision “is part of the reorganization that began more than a year ago and is due to the ability of other facilities to produce the same products and therefore achieve savings and efficiencies.”
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As part of a run of acquisitions it undertook in the 2010s, Olymel bought the Triomphe business in 2018, including the Blainville and Laval plants plus a Quebec City facility it closed in 2019.
The federally-inspected Triomphe plants produced hams, pâtés, cretons (meat spreads) and charcuterie (deli meats) mainly for the Quebec market, under brands including Tour Eiffel, Chef Georges, La Belle Bretagne, Nostrano, Alpina, Bilopage and Mother Hen/La Mere Poule.
Most of the Triomphe brands will be maintained, Olymel said Wednesday, and their production volumes will be handled at other Olymel further-processing sites.
The closures at Blainville and Laval affect 134 and 36 unionized employees, respectively, all of whom have received their 12 weeks’ notice under Quebec labour law and will be offered opportunities to relocate to other Olymel sites, the company said.
The fate of the Blainville and Laval buildings, meanwhile, “will be assessed at a later date” before the April 28 closure, the company added.
Gervais said Wednesday the decision should allow the company to “more rapidly” meet its goal of optimizing its business footprint “in the context of unfavourable economic conditions, with rising raw material costs, labour shortages and the weakness of certain markets all affecting (Olymel’s) profitability.”
Sollio, and its Olymel arm, don’t publish quarterly fiscal reports and haven’t yet released full-year results for 2022. In Sollio’s fiscal 2021 report, released last February, Olymel booked a $60.2 million loss before patronage refunds and income taxes, down from earnings of $215.4 million in fiscal 2020.
Olymel’s drop into the red in 2021 was “largely attributable” to its fresh pork operations in Quebec and Alberta, Sollio said in February 2022.
At that time, the company said factors dragging on the bottom line had included a loss of market access to China, a COVID-19-related shutdown at its Red Deer, Alta. hog plant, labour shortages, related outsourcing costs, a four-month strike at its Vallee-Jonction, Que. hog plant, higher hog supply costs and a stronger loonie making Canadian products less attractive internationally.
Olymel in 2022 went on to announce layoffs for 57 management-level employees, plus plans to eliminate another 120 mainly administrative positions via attrition. It also said it will exit the lard processing business and shut its rendering plant at the company’s home office town of St-Hyacinthe; that closure is due to take effect next Friday (Feb. 10). — Glacier FarmMedia Network
