Amir Quality Meats, which operates a federally registered HACCP-certified boning and cutting plant at Brampton, has an agreement in place to buy the processing plant and “associated supply” of Wellington Poultry for an undisclosed sum.

Wellington, which operates at Arthur, about 75 km west of Brampton, has served the Ontario specialty breed and “mainstream” markets for over 18 years, Chicken Farmers of Ontario (CFO) said in a release Monday.

CFO CEO Denise Hockaday said the deal “supports our shared priority of ensuring Ontarians can continue to count on a steady supply of locally-grown chicken.”

“We see lots of opportunities to continue to build strong relationships with the growers and grow the marketplace — providing Ontarians with continued access to chicken choices,” Amir chief financial officer Sherry Aziz said in the same release.

The provincially-licensed Wellington Poultry facility is halal-compatible and Amir is looking at upgrading it to meet federal inspection standards when the deal closes, Aziz said Wednesday.

The transaction is expected to close effective Oct. 21, she said.

Amir has been in the meat supply business in the greater Toronto area (GTA) for over 25 years and is now billed as one of Canada’s largest independent, family-owned halal meat processors and distributors. The company handles beef, lamb and fish as well as poultry. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The Canadian arm of Amsterdam-based Upfield said Wednesday it has bought a 164,000-square foot industrial building at Brantford and “brings a significant investment involving the purchase of land, infrastructure improvements and equipment.”

Upfield, which formed in 2018 when consumer goods giant Unilever spun off its worldwide spreads business, now bills itself as the largest plant-based consumer products company in the world.

The Violife plant-based cheese substitute brand came to Upfield in January, when it closed a deal to take over Greek plant-based and dairy-free processor Arivia.

Upfield said Wednesday it will expand its operations onto the 17.4-acre Brantford property — while ending operations at its current Toronto processing site, at Etobicoke.

The company, which has 86 employees at Etobicoke, said it “looks forward to welcoming members of its existing workforce to Brantford,” where it also expects to generate “additional employment opportunities” between next year and 2023.

The new plant, which Upfield expects to have “fully operational” by the end of 2021, will include improvements to support the company’s expanding spreads and margarine product portfolio.

Upfield said it also plans to set up a “scaled-up manufacturing platform” that will support “new innovations” such as Violife as well as the Becel line and other spreads.

Upfield Canada president Dan Bajor, in a release Wednesday, said the Brantford expansion is part of a plan to build up its space in the plant-based foods business in Canada — and that includes introducing the Violife line in this country.

The Brantford plant, he added, will supply the Canadian consumer market but also will “support the export of Violife to the United States and eventually to markets in Latin America.”

Upfield’s Becel product lines in Canada are made with canola and sunflower oil as well as palm oil and soy extracts. Its non-vegan line includes small amounts of buttermilk, while its plant-based butter substitutes include pea protein.

Its Violife line, meanwhile, is coconut oil-based. It includes cheddar, mozzarella, parmesan and feta-flavoured products for use as non-dairy substitutes in pizza, sandwiches and other food items. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Organizers said Wednesday the event, which was scheduled for Nov. 6-15 at Toronto’s Exhibition Place, has been cancelled “due to our ongoing concern regarding the COVID-19 pandemic.”

First held in 1922, spearheaded by Ontario cattle producer W.A. Dryden and granted its “royal” designation by King George V, the Royal today is billed as the largest indoor agricultural event in the world, drawing about 300,000 people per year.

The Royal’s agricultural food competitions will still take place in 2020, organizers said in a release, and “virtual programming designed to engage, educate and motivate is currently being explored for this fall.”

Beyond those plans, organizers are turning their attention to next year’s event, scheduled for Nov. 5-14, 2021, ahead of the Royal’s 100th anniversary in 2022.

The Toronto region was allowed to move into “stage two” of Ontario’s pandemic reopening plan starting Wednesday, providing for “small outdoor events, such as cultural celebrations, animal shows and fundraisers… in line with gathering-size restrictions.”

Large outdoor events such as “concerts, large festivals, parades and amusement fairs” are still not permitted in stage two, the province said. Large public gatherings will also “continue to be restricted” in stage three, starting at an as-yet unspecified date.

From the pandemic’s arrival in the province up to Wednesday afternoon, Toronto has reported 14,029 of Ontario’s 34,016 cases of COVID-19.

“Ultimately, our decision is grounded in our commitment to help ensure the health and well-being of our community at large,” fair CEO Charlie Johnstone said in Wednesday’s release.

“We understand and appreciate the time, effort and financial commitment required to compete and exhibit at The Royal and did not make this decision without very careful consideration.”

The Royal has been cancelled on “only one other occasion,” organizers said Wednesday.

The event was suspended from 1939 through 1945, while Exhibition Place’s facilities were pressed into wartime service by Canada’s military and the Royal Horse Palace’s stalls were repurposed as barracks for soldiers preparing to be deployed overseas.

COVID-19 has already forced several major ag events and local, regional and national-level fairs to cancel, postpone or move online for 2020 — including, among others, Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show, Canadian Western Agribition, Canada’s Farm Show, Ag in Motion, Grain Farmers of Ontario’s March Classic, the Canadian Beef Industry Conference, the Calgary Stampede and the Canadian Dairy Xpo. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Toronto-based Maple Leaf announced Monday it will build a 640,000-square foot plant at London, billed as “one of the most technologically advanced poultry-processing plants in the world, with leading-edge food safety, environmental, and animal welfare processes and technologies.”

Construction is expected to start next spring at a 100-acre site along London’s Wilton Grove Road, just south of Highway 401, toward a plant start-up in the second quarter of 2021.

“This world-class facility will enable Maple Leaf to meet the steadily growing consumer demand for premium, value-added poultry products, and strengthen Canada’s food system,” CEO Michael McCain said in a release.

The new plant, he said, is expected to support over 1,450 direct full- and part-time jobs at first and ensure Canada has “sufficient domestic processing capacity to meet forecasted poultry production and demand.”

Chicken is the most consumed and fastest growing meat protein in Canada, Maple Leaf said, as it offers “versatility, nutrition and a lower environmental footprint.”

The company noted “particularly high demand for raised without antibiotics and halal chicken products, where Maple Leaf has the leading national brands.”

The new London plant “will address constraints in Maple Leaf’s current Ontario network, enhance operating efficiencies, and expand its value-added product mix and capacity to meet growing consumer demand.”

To that end, production from three “sub-scale and aging” poultry plants in Ontario will be moved to London, Maple Leaf said.

The company said Monday it will close the former Schneiders poultry plant at St. Marys by late 2021, and its Toronto and Brampton poultry plants by mid- to late 2022.

Those three plants are each 50 to 60 years old, Maple Leaf said, with “location, footprint and infrastructure constraints that limit opportunities to expand and modernize to meet growing market demand.”

The company said it will work with local communities and governments to find “alternate uses” for the three plants when they close.

“While these closures are several years away we are informing our people well in advance, allowing us to openly communicate and support them through this long-term transition,” McCain said.

The $660 million to build the London plant will include an investment of $34.5 million from the Ontario government, plus $20 million from the federal Strategic Innovation Fund and an $8 million loan from the AgriInnovate Fund, Maple Leaf said.

The federal funding agreement also calls for Maple Leaf to put up $5 million over the next five years on projects which “accelerate adoption of advanced manufacturing and production technologies and support the company’s goal to reduce its environmental footprint by 50 per cent by 2025.”

Ontario Premier Doug Ford on Monday described the London plant as “the largest investment in the history of Ontario’s agriculture sector” and added it will “help make Ontario’s chicken farmers more competitive.”

The London Economic Development Corporation (LEDC) said Monday it’s working with Fanshawe College, Brescia University College and other training institutions to develop “skilled talent for food and beverage processing, as well as quality assurance, nutritional sciences, product development and food chemistry.”

Wayne Hanley, president of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1006A, which represents about 600 workers at the affected Toronto plant, said UFCW “will work to minimize the impact of this closure and to achieve the best possible outcome for our members as a result of this announcement.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Walmart is buying Cornershop, which offers deliveries in Mexico and Chile, for US$225 million. The deal, one of Walmart’s various global investments and tie-ups geared at helping the retailer compete with Amazon.com, is slated to close by year’s end.

In the U.S., Walmart is the largest seller of groceries but grapples with the challenge of swiftly delivering fresh food to the homes of online customers. The company has promised to make such deliveries in 100 U.S. cities by the end of 2018 and so far covers nearly 50 markets.

In a race to meet its goal, the company is working with several small delivery companies including Doordash and Postmates after ditching partnerships with ride-share companies Uber and Lyft.

Cornershop chief technology officer Daniel Undurraga said in an interview on Tuesday that Cornershop plans to launch in Toronto in the first quarter next year. If it does well, Vancouver and Montreal would follow.

If Canada is successful overall, Undurraga said, the U.S. could be the next target.

“Canada is a good test market for launching a service in the U.S. It is very similar, but smaller,” he said.

Walmart did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Judith McKenna, chief executive of Walmart International, said in September that Cornershop was expected to provide a learning experience for Walmart’s markets beyond Mexico and Chile.

An English-language version of the app will roll out within a month as part of preparation for the Canada launch, Undurraga said.

Cornershop still needs to partner with a local payments company and recruit workers in Canada. About 11,000 people currently work for Cornershop across 11 cities in Mexico and Chile.

Apart from Walmart the platform also offers deliveries from various retailers, including Costco Wholesale Corp. and Mexican chains Chedraui and La Comer. Undurraga said Cornershop is building firewalls so that Walmart cannot access customer data from other stores.

The company will also consider raising delivery fees to account for higher labour costs in Canada and the U.S. Cornershop generates other revenue through advertising, commissions from retailers and price mark-ups.

The technology, however, is already in place.

“We have our own tools for being able to do this without a lot of effort,” Undurraga said.

— Daina Beth Solomon reports on retail and e-commerce for Reuters from Mexico City; additional reporting by Nandita Bose in New York.

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In a deal still subject to review by the federal Competition Bureau, Empire Co. announced Monday it will pay $800 million for the grocery chain, currently co-owned by a management group and investment firm Berkshire Partners. The deal is expected to close at the beginning of next year.

The Ottawa-based chain, which started with a single store at Cornwall, Ont. in 1981, now includes 26 stores mainly in southeastern Ontario, with plans now afoot to expand its space in southwestern Ontario and the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) — areas where Empire says its own chains are so far “under-penetrated.”

Those expansion plans are expected to continue as “early priorities” for the Farm Boy business under Empire ownership, “through a combination of new site builds and conversions of some existing Sobeys locations.”

Nova Scotia-based Empire described Farm Boy as a “highly scalable” platform with “industry-leading” growth and metrics, which will allow Empire to accelerate its own growth in urban markets.

Boston-based Berkshire has owned an unspecified equity stake in Farm Boy since 2012. Its managing director Chris Hadley said at the time that the Farm Boy stores “deliver a unique fresh and friendly shopping experience compared to other food retailers.”

Farm Boy bills itself as carrying “hundreds” of Ontario products from local suppliers, including fresh produce, meats, dairy and cheeses, baked goods, seafood and fresh prepared foods, including gluten-free, organic and “natural” items.

“Farm Boy has a best-in-class brand with stellar customer loyalty,” Empire CEO Michael Medline said in a release, noting the chain’s offering are “particularly appealing to urban and suburban consumers.

“We believe we will be able to build on their historical industry leading same-store sales growth of 5.3 per cent and five-year (compound annual growth rate for earnings) of 21 per cent to double the size of the business in the next five years.”

Working with Empire, “we will strengthen the already-strong Farm Boy brand, starting with urban and suburban markets in Ontario and eventually rolling out to other areas of Canada,” Farm Boy co-CEO Jeff York said.

York and co-CEO Jean-Louis Bellemare will remain in their roles for the long term, reporting to Medline and managing the business separately from Empire’s other operations, the company said. The two co-CEOs also agreed to reinvest in the business in return for a 12 per cent stake in the continuing Farm Boy business, Empire said.

For Farm Boy, the deal allows access to Empire’s “infrastructure and capabilities” in real estate, sourcing and logistics, providing for certain “non-customer-facing synergies” and “faster and even more effective store expansion.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The province on Monday announced the Mondelez Canada bakery in East York will get up to $22.6 million from the Jobs and Prosperity Fund, by way of that program’s Food and Beverage Growth Fund.

The funding will go toward an expansion of the plant — which today makes Oreos and Peek Freans and Lifestyle biscuits — including installation of two new bakery lines and upgrades of an existing bakery line.

The expansions, upgrades and added lines are expected to allow Mondelez to create new products at the East York plant, the province said in a release.

The public investment “will support opportunities in master baking, technician and engineering skills development,” the province said.

The Food and Beverage Growth Fund — one of four streams of the Jobs and Prosperity Fund launched in 2015 — is meant to support food, beverage and bioproduct manufacturing projects that “help create and retain jobs, increase domestic and export market access and enhance innovation and productivity.”

Illinois-based Mondelez, which booked 2017 net revenues of about US$26 billion, billed itself as holding the No. 1 spot in the biscuits and candy market worldwide last year. Biscuits accounted for about 42 per cent of the company’s 2017 net revenues.

Mondelez was formed in 2012 when Kraft Foods split its global snacks business off from its North American grocery business into two separate publicly traded companies.

The East York plant, which today operates 24/7 and employs over 450 people, dates back to 1949, when it was set up by the Canadian arm of British biscuit maker Peek Frean.

Peek Frean’s Canadian business later rebranded as Associated Biscuits before being taken over in 1983 by Nabisco, which in turn was taken over by Philip Morris in 2000 and merged into another Philip Morris subsidiary, Kraft Foods, in 2001.

“Since the 1950s, this facility has provided employment opportunities, supported local wheat farmers and other ingredient suppliers and developed new products to help increase Ontario’s profile in international markets,” Agriculture Minister Jeff Leal said in the province’s release.

“This investment, added to our own, will help us progress on our journey towards manufacturing excellence, which ensures that our products can continue to be made in the province,” Juan Carlos Torres Rodriguez, the East York plant’s manager, said in the same release.

“This investment brings state-of-the-art equipment, and the opportunity to increase the skills of our people in new and exciting ways, supporting jobs at the site. All this will enable us to remain globally competitive and help grow Ontario’s agri-food exports.” — AGCanada.com Network

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The Camden, N.J. company’s Canadian arm announced Wednesday it will close the plant in phases over a period of up to 18 months and move its production to three U.S. facilities.

The Toronto plant, on Birmingham Street in Etobicoke, is the oldest facility in Campbell’s “thermal” plant network, having opened in 1931.

“Due to its size and age, the Toronto plant cannot be retrofit in a way that is competitively viable,” the company said.

The company in 2010 had billed the Toronto plant as using over 42 million lbs. of fresh vegetables per year, including potatoes, carrots, mushrooms, celery and onions, to produce over 182,000 tonnes of soup products.

But “productivity improvements” in the soup and broth business, along with sales volume declines of canned soup in North America, are among the factors leading to “excess capacity” in Campbell’s North American thermal supply chain, the company said Wednesday.

“We are operating in an increasingly challenging environment as our industry’s consumer and retail landscapes continue to change dramatically,” Mark Alexander, president for Campbell’s Americas simple meals and beverages division, said in a release.

“Despite this decision, Canada is important to Campbell,” Campbell Canada president Ana Dominguez said in the same release, after informing employees of the decision at a plant meeting. “We are remaining in Canada and will continue to make important contributions to the food industry in this country.”

About 380 manufacturing-related positions at the plant will be affected, the company said, while “nearly 200” Toronto staff will move to a new head office location in the Greater Toronto Area.

Selection is “underway” for a new site, which will include a new “Food Innovation Centre,” Campbell said. Despite exiting manufacturing in Canada, the company “will continue to make soup and broth recipes tailored to Canadian tastes.”

The Etobicoke plant was the first — and now the last — of Campbell’s major Canadian manufacturing sites. In 2009 the company shut down its frozen soup and ramen noodle operations at Listowel, Ont.; plants at Portage la Prairie, Man. and Chatham, Ont. closed in 1990 and 1993 respectively.

Campbell said Wednesday its decision to stop manufacturing in Toronto is part of a multi-year “cost savings initiative” announced in early 2015. At the end of October last year, it said, the initiative was generating $345 million per year in annual cost savings.

In a filing Wednesday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Campbell announced the Toronto plant closure and a move to “optimize” its information technology infrastructure by moving certain applications to a cloud-based platform.

For those two moves, Campbell said it would authorize pre-tax costs of $125 million to $140 million in total, including about $30 million in severance pay and benefits; $65 million in “accelerated depreciation of property, plant and equipment” and $30 million to $45 million in “implementation costs.”

Production from the Toronto plant will move to Campbell facilities at Maxton, North Carolina, about 160 km southeast of Charlotte; Napoleon, Ohio, about 50 km southwest of Toledo; and Paris, Texas, about 140 km northeast of Dallas. — AGCanada.com Network

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Quebec-based Metro Inc. said Wednesday it expects to put up $400 million to modernize and automate its Toronto operations between 2018 and 2023, building two new facilities for fresh and frozen food distribution respectively.

“The new distribution centres will provide improved product assortment and selection accuracy as well as more flexibility which will allow us to improve service to our store network and customers,” Carmen Fortino, the company’s Ontario division head, said in a release. “In addition, they will feature state-of-the-art technology to enhance efficiency.”

Metro said its existing distribution network in Toronto was largely built more than 50 years ago and “no longer meets the evolving needs of the business.”

Its Ontario network today supplies 133 Metro and Metro Plus grocery stores in the province, along with Metro’s discount chain Food Basics, which has 128 Ontario locations.

Metro’s Ontario supply chain today runs through four distribution centres in Toronto and two in Ottawa, with combined staff of over 1,500 employees.

Modernizing and automating parts of that distribution network is expected to lead to cuts of about 180 full-time and 100 part-time jobs starting in 2021, the company said.

Fortino pledged “a range of transition measures” to support laid-off employees, adding that “fortunately, we have some time to plan the transition.”

Metro CEO Eric La Fleche said the planned investment will also enable the company to “continue its growth and expansion in the Ontario market.”

Paying for Coutu

The company’s plan follows its announcement earlier this month that it will buy the Quebec-based pharmacy retail chain Jean Coutu Group in a cash-and-stock deal worth $4.5 billion.

To help finance that deal, Metro on Wednesday also announced plans to sell most of its remaining minority ownership stake in Canada’s biggest convenience store operator, Quebec-based Alimentation Couche-Tard.

Those plans include Metro and its Metro Holdings arm selling almost 11.4 million Class B subordinate shares of Couche-Tard for $57.17 per share, or about $650 million, to dealers led by National Bank Financial and BMO Capital Markets.

Metro will also sell CDP Investissements and CDPQ Marches Boursiers, subsidiaries of Caisse de depot et placements du Quebec, another 11.4 million Class A multiple voting shares of Couche-Tard at $57.17 a share, also about $650 million.

Couche-Tard itself, whose banners in Canada also include Mac’s and Circle K, will buy back 4.4 million of its Class B subordinate voting shares from Metro for cancellation at $57.17 each, or about $250 million.

Once those deals close, Metro Holdings will still have about 5.1 million, or 3.9 per cent, of Couche-Tard’s Class A multiple voting shares.

Metro’s ownership stake in Couche-Tard has sat at almost 22 per cent since 2013, when it sold off about half its previous stake in the convenience store firm for about $479 million. — AGCanada.com Network

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Gay Lea Foods Co-operative on Wednesday announced a budget of $140 million over four years to set up what it describes as an “innovative nutrition and nutraceutical-grade dairy ingredients hub in Canada.”

First on the list is a $60 million expansion for the Mississauga-based co-operative’s creamery at Teeswater, about 100 km northwest of Guelph.

The dairy processing operation that later became known as Teeswater Creamery was established in the area in 1875 and became part of Gay Lea in 1981.

The Teeswater plant saw upgrades and expansions in 2011, backed in part by almost $1 million in provincial funding, to boost its production of milk products and milk protein concentrates for use in products such as infant formula, protein bars and protein drinks, and to serve as an exclusive ingredient supplier for Chapman’s Ice Cream.

The $60 million expansion pledged for the Teeswater plant, to begin early next year, is part of the co-op’s first phase in its multi-year plan, which Gay Lea said will also include upgrades and expansion at its Toronto-area food manufacturing facilities.

The Toronto expansions, the company said, are meant to “increase our capabilities and competitiveness, improving cost efficiencies, while working to reduce our environmental footprint.”

The first phase, Gay Lea said, also commits $3 million to build a new research and development centre of excellence in Hamilton.

The centre, Gay Lea said, will be a “working laboratory and innovation incubator” and “the nexus between R+D and commercialization throughout Gay Lea Foods’ operations, and also service our partners in the dairy, food and health sectors.”

Gay Lea, whose production facilities across Ontario employ about 950 people, has been expanding through acquisitions in recent years, buying Ontario processors Stirling Creamery last month and Black River Cheese in May.

The co-operative last month also announced plans for a new dairy ingredient and butter processing facility in Winnipeg, in a joint venture with Vitalus Nutrition. The venture would also see Gay Lea offer Manitoba dairy farmers the opportunity to join the co-op as member owners.

Gay Lea also recently bought a minority stake in goat’s milk and sheep’s milk processor Mariposa Dairy and expanded its membership to include Ontario dairy goat producers.

Dairy farmer and Gay Lea chairman Steve Dolson said the co-op’s new plan is “driving growth through innovation and the development of new markets that will increase demand for milk from Canadian dairy farms.” — AGCanada.com Network

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