Ag production expansion investment gives project (robotic) lift

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This article was published 28/11/2024 (309 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The food and beverage manufacturing industry in Manitoba is quietly cooking.

Including the eggs for every McDonald’s Egg McMuffin sandwich in Western Canada that come out of the Burnbrae Farms plant in Transcona, the sector generates close to $9 billion in annual sales and employs more than 17,000.

While more than 90 per cent of those companies have fewer than 100 employees, Ontario-based Burnbrae is not one of them.

With about 300 employees, the 114,000-square-foot production facility in east Winnipeg accounts for about 65 per cent of the eggs produced in Manitoba.

The company was one of 70 projects that recently received a total of $15.4 million (over four years) from the Sustainable Canadian Agriculture Partnership (Sustainable CAP). The federal-provincial partnership supports growth and expansion through capital investments in modernization activities to enhance productivity and environmental sustainability.

The funding helped Burnbrae install new robotic equipment its says will both improve efficiency and eliminate repetitive strain injuries in employees.

“The robotics did eliminate a few very heavy manual labour jobs, but it was easy to find them other positions and it opened up new jobs for technicians,” Frank Both, director of Western Canada operations, said Thursday at a news event at the company’s facility alongside employees and politicians.

“The food processing industry is so critical for Manitoba. We still need a labour force to operate the robotics, but the opportunity for efficiencies is the key,” provincial Agriculture Minister Ron Kostyshyn said.

He noted the additional value-added processing creates higher demand and a positive ripple effect throughout the sector, including the producers on the 80 independent farms Burnbrae buys its eggs from.

Burnbrae is a six-generation business owned by the Hudson family out of Lynn, Ont. It has been steadily growing its Manitoba operation since acquiring a former Lucerne facility in 1996.

The $2 million contribution it received from the Sustainable CAP leveraged an $18 million investment from Burnbrae itself.

“In the 28 years I’ve worked here, they have never stopped,” said Both. “Virtually everything they make gets put back into the business. But if we didn’t get this funding from the province, they might have invested in one of the company’s other facilities in Ontario, Quebec, Alberta or B.C.”

In addition to grading and packaging and distributing eggs (mostly sold under the private labels of all the large grocery store chains), the company’s Winnipeg facility is the only one that also does quick frozen products (such as omelettes) that are sold across the country — as well as the less-glamorous hard-boiled eggs.

The latest round of Sustainable CAP funding also dispersed funds to other Manitoba projects, including:

● Kimberly Packing Corp., part of Kroeker Farms Ltd., a producer and processor of potatoes in southern Manitoba. The money will allow it to package its product in Manitoba, a process currently done outside the province;

● Roquette Canada Ltd. is investing in new equipment at its Portage la Prairie pea protein plant, the largest such processing facility in the world. The investment will allow it to increase production volume;

● Spenst Bros. Premium Meats is a farm family-owned pizza production facility, retail store and meat processing plant located in Winkler. Its funded project involves expanding the market for its popular frozen products across Canada.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca