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The Canadian Press - ONLINE EDITION

Maple Leaf Foods closing plant in Ayr, Ont., cutting about 100 jobs

By: The Canadian Press

Posted: 02/7/2012 3:50 PM | Comments: 0 (including replies) | Last Modified: 02/7/2012 4:45 PM

TORONTO - Maple Leaf Foods (TSX:MFI) is closing a chicken processing plant in Ayr, Ont., in a move that will result in the net loss of about 100 jobs.

The company said Tuesday the streamlining is part of a plan to consolidate the company's poultry operations at its Brantford and Mississauga, Ont., plants.

"We have an immediate opportunity to increase efficiency and capacity utilization in our value-added poultry business, which this consolidation will achieve," Maple Leaf president and chief executive Michael McCain said.

The Ayr chicken plant, which employs about 175 people in the southwestern Ontario community south of Kitchener, Ont., will be closed in May.

The work will be transferred to the company's other operations, with 75 new jobs created at the Mississauga plant just west of Toronto.

The company said it will work to help employees at the Ayr plant find other jobs within Maple Leaf, including those created in Mississauga.

Maple Leaf will spend roughly $6.5 million at its Mississauga and Brantford operations as part of the consolidation. The company also expects to spend $5.6 million on restructuring costs.

Maple Leaf is Canada's biggest food processor, making and selling such well-known store brands as Maple Leaf, Burns and Schneiders hot dogs, Dempster's bread, Olivieri pasta, as well as Shopsy's deli meats and Mitchell's Gourmet foods.

The company has been streamlining in recent years in a bid to improve its profitability and become more efficient as it faces rising costs for ingredients.

Last year, Maple Leaf announced a plan to cut 1,550 jobs by closing plants in four provinces and streamlining distribution, part of a three-year, $560-million restructuring plan expected to boost competitiveness and profitability.

The company said it would close processing plants in Kitchener, Hamilton and Toronto in Ontario; in North Battleford, Sask., and in Moncton, N.B., as well as a small plant in Winnipeg by the end of 2014.

It will also close four of its distribution centres, consolidating distribution for Eastern Canada in a new centre in Ontario and using an existing operation in Saskatoon as its Western Canadian hub.

The restructuring will see the building of four large, technologically advanced plants, creating 1,150 new jobs. But the associated plant closures will more than offset that, resulting in the net loss of 1,550.

Maple Leaf has 21,000 employees at its operations across Canada and in the United States, Europe and Asia.

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