No terms of the
deal were disclosed.
The
purchase includes a quarantine barn, sow barns, nursery barns and finishing
barns.
Olymel
will also lease finishing farms near Medicine Hat, Alberta.
"Olymel is pleased to welcome the (30)
employees of Pinnacle Farms into its family,” said Olymel president and chief
executive officer Rejean Nadeau.
“Their experience will be invaluable to Olymel,
which receives a boost to its hog production operations in Western Canada.
“This addition in our pork sector should support
the target Olymel has set for 2020 : to produce more than 1.5 million hogs
annually in Western Canada in order to meet the growing demand from its customers," Nadeau said.
Adding
Pinnacle Farms brings Olymel’s sow herd in the West to 52,000. It will bring
another 100,000 hogs per year to the Olymel plant at Red Deer.
Exports
of iso-weaner pigs to the United States and to other Alberta farms will end.
Olymel
will seeking contract finishing-barn space for 30,000 hogs.
Director Ron Arnason said "Pinnacle has been
supplying finishing hogs to Olymel for more than four years, so our two
companies have had time to get to know one another.
“Verus
Management and I are pleased with the conclusion of this relationship and the
transaction we are announcing today.
“This transaction opens the door to the company's
further development, and will enable it to serve new markets," Arnason said.
So a farm co-op becomes hog farmers' competitor.
Nice for the suits, I guess. Not so nice for independent hog producers.
