Construction has been completed and Olymel is adding a second shift at its hog-slaughtering plant at Ange-Gardien, Montérégie, southeast of Montreal.
The $3 million investment will boost slaughter capacity from 25,000 to 35,000 hogs per week and the extra shift of 150 workers will help to clear the backlog that developed while union members at the Olymel plant at Vallée-Jonction were on strike.
Olymel purchased the plant from F. Ménard.
President Réjean Nadeau said "the increase in slaughter capacity at the Ange-Gardien plant fulfills the development goals Olymel set when it acquired F. Ménard.
“This investment will also allow our company to increase its production of value-added products, such as chilled pork, a product that is particularly popular in the Japanese market that the Ange-Gardien plant already serves, in addition to the domestic market.
“In a difficult period, marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, this increase in activity will generate optimism and positive economic spin-offs for the entire Montérégie region.
“I would like to salute the collaboration of the Agromex workers' union represented by the Centrale des syndicats démocratiques (CSD) for their openness and collaboration throughout the development of this growth project," he said.
That is a different union from the one that represents workers at the Vallée-Jonction plant.
