DC Foods Ltd. of Waterloo is investing $8 million to expand
and equip its chicken-processing plant in Waterloo.
It will add and equip 8,000 square feet and hire another 50
people making chicken nuggets,
breaded fish and veal and cheese private-label products for customers such as
Loblaws and Wal-Mart.
The Ontario government is putting $800,050 into the
expansion.
The business was started in 1992 by Don Kilimnik and Rob
Currie when they lost their employment when Maple Leaf Foods Inc. closed the
Stillmeadow Farms chicken-processing plant at Elora.
They started with seven employees processing frozen chicken
breasts.
Now the business is owned by Sunrise Farms of Surrey, B.C.
and has sales of about $50 million a year.
The expansion will enable Kilimnik
and Currie to increase production by 30 per cent and sales to $80 million a
year.
Who knows whether Maple Leaf's closing of the Schneider plant might lead to similar new and highly successful ventures in the local meat industry?
