Elmira Poultry has been sold again, this time to Hallmark
Poultry Processors Ltd. of Vancouver.
J.D. Sweid Ltd., also of British Columbia, bought the
business in 2006 and built an addition in 2009.
The company was started by Monty Ward is Elmira in 1985,
moved to Waterloo and became one of the fastest-growing and well-equipped
further processing plants in Canada.
At one point its laser water-jet cutting equipment, imported
from Japan, was the most advanced in North America for cutting precise shapes
and sizes of chicken. That brought demand from across Canada and into the
United States and Elmira Poultry was looking for chicken from as far away as
Newfoundland.
Sweid and Hallmark are both private companies specializing
in further processing poultry. Sweid also does some beef.
In addition to Elmira Poultry, Sweid has plants in Langley
and Burnaby, B.C. It employs about 500 people.
