Major Canadian pork and poultry packer Olymel has laid off 57 people from its management ranks and eliminated another 120 administrative positions, citing the company’s current “market context and growth challenges.”
Olymel, the meat packing arm of Quebec-based Sollio Cooperative Group, said Tuesday its affected employees were notified Monday and have received their layoff notices.
The company said the 177 total cuts are mostly in “administrative positions,” are “primarily” in its offices in Quebec and include 120 positions which “became open in recent months.”
“The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and a historic labour shortage at our facilities, market and supply chain disruptions, raw material price inflation and an uncertain global economic landscape are all factors that make a case for optimized company business models. Olymel is no exception,” CEO Yannick Gervais said in a release.
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“After careful analysis, the difficult decision to significantly reduce our management staff is an answer to the need to adapt to unpredictable market conditions and to better position the company for the future.”
Sollio’s Olymel arm in fiscal 2021 booked a $60.2 million loss before patronage refunds and income taxes, down from earnings of $215.4 million in fiscal 2020.
That dip into the red was “largely attributable” to the packer’s fresh pork operations in Quebec and Alberta, Sollio said in its annual report in February.
It cited factors such as a loss of market access to China, a four-month strike at its Vallee-Jonction, Que. pork plant, a COVID-19-related shutdown at its Red Deer, Alta. hog plant, labour shortages, related outsourcing costs, higher hog supply costs and, at the time, a stronger loonie, which makes Canadian products less attractive to importers elsewhere.
Headquartered at St-Hyacinthe, Que., Olymel employs about 14,000 people across the country, with slaughter and processing facilities including 15 pork and poultry plants in Quebec, the Red Deer pork plant, two poultry plants and a pork plant in Ontario, plus the Sunnymel poultry plant at Clair, New Brunswick. The company’s combined slaughter capacity in Canada sits at about 185,000 hogs and 2.4 million birds per week.
Its other operations include the Olysky hog production business at Humboldt, Sask., distribution centres in Quebec and Red Deer, and processing machinery, trucking and sales facilities in Quebec.
The company sells its products in Canada under brands including Olymel, Lafleur, Flamingo, La Fernandiere, Pinty’s, Tour Eiffel and F. Menard, and exports about a third of its meat production, with customers in over 65 countries.
Olymel said Wednesday it believes the administrative cuts “will help eliminate duplicate tasks and lead to savings and efficiency gains to meet market conditions that require greater agility in achieving strategic business objectives.”
A review found the cuts were necessary “given the market context and growth challenges the company is facing,” the company added. — Glacier FarmMedia Network
