Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - October 6, 2021, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE B5 BUSINESS BUSINESS EDITOR: SHANE MINKIN 204-697-7308 ● BUSINESS@FREEPRESS.MB.CA ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM B5 WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 6, 2021 Maple Leaf investing in province Company adding pre-cooked bacon operation to its Winnipeg plant, expanding workforce M APLE Leaf Foods is sink-ing another $182 million into its Manitoba pork complex, building a pre-cooked ba- con expansion at its already sprawl- ing Lagimodiere facility. The 73,000-square-foot expansion also means the company will expand its workforce by about 350 people. Some have already been hired and more will be added as the new opera- tion gets to full production by the end of this year or early in the new year. Maple Leaf has been selling brand- ed pre-cooked bacon but it used assistance from third-party partners in the U.S. up until now. Iain Stewart, Maple Leaf Foods’ senior vice-president, operations, supply chain and purchasing said the company’s investment in its own pro- duction capabilities in this product category has been in the works since before the pandemic. “But with all the disruption in sup- ply chains and the fact that it is close to Brandon (where Maple Leaf slaughters all its hogs for its North American pork business) and we had the bacon plant there, it just made sense that if we were going to invest somewhere we would invest again in Lagimodiere and start building out our pre-cooked bacon busi- ness out of that plant,” he said. All of the pork bellies used in the bacon production will come from the Brandon plant. Stewart said pre-cooked bacon pro- duction capacity was getting harder to find from third party operations and he said that it is likely to become more pro- nounced as the demand for the product is expected to continue to increase. Maple Leaf acquired that facility in 1997 when it bought Burns Meat. Since then it has had a couple of major expan- sions such that it is now the company’s main ham and bacon production facil- ity. The expansion includes the most modern state-of-the-art manufacturing equipment and will turn the Winnipeg plant into the company’s Bacon Centre of Excellence with the capacity to ex- pand to meet the demand. The workforce there has also grown substantially over the years and after the pre-cooked bacon line is fully up and running it will rival the Brandon operation for employment with close to 2,000 people. Brandon’s workforce is currently around 2,100. “It was never close to the size of our Brandon operation, but it’s getting clos- er,” Stewart said. With a workforce of 4,000 in the prov- ince, not counting the people who work in hog production — close to 50 per cent of the hogs Maple Leaf slaughters in Brandon come from hog barns that Maple Leaf also owns — Manitoba has been a good place for Maple Leaf Foods. The company also acquired an ex- isting plant on Paquin Road in the St. Boniface Industrial Park in 2019 and has been doing construction and pre- paring it for an opening by the end of the year. It will be a packaging plant for its value-added fresh pork business and will employ over 100 people when fully operational. “It has been fantastic,” Stewart said of the company’s activities in the prov- ince. The feeling is probably mutual, as the province is investing about $1.9 million through the Industry Expansion Pro- gram to support skills training over a two year period. Jon Reyes, Manitoba’s minister of economic development and jobs said, they are always open to conversation with business to help them grow espe- cially during these uncertain times. “Any time we can help companies invest in Manitoba and create employ- ment it is good for the province,” Reyes said. “If we are going to recover we have to grow.” The jobs Maple Leaf is creating may not be sexy tech-sector positions, but they do come with some of the best wages and benefits in the industry, ac- cording to Jeff Traeger, president of UFCW Canada Local 832. Workers at the Lagimodiere plant ratified a new contract at the beginning of the year that takes them to 2025. Traeger said workers there receive pensions, dental and health care and good vacation schedules along with good wages. “Our members are pretty excited,” he said. “We have a good relationship with Maple Leaf Foods. They treat our mem- bers extremely well.” The union also just signed its first collective agreement with the workers at the packaging plant on Paquin Road late last month. That five-year agree- ment includes wages and benefits simi- lar to the agreement at the Lagimodiere plant. Stewart said many new hires have al- ready taken place and the company is giving itself time to ramp up production in what he said is a complex operation. “The building is jammed with equip- ment,” he said, including microwaves for the cooking, a smokehouse and slicing equipment. martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca MARTIN CASH PHOTOS SUBMITTED The expansion means the company will expand its workforce by about 350 people. The jobs Maple Leaf is creating come with some of the best wages and benefits in the industry, said Jeff Traeger, president of UFCW Canada Local 832. Below: the Lagimodiere plant. ‘Any time we can help companies invest in Manitoba and create employment it is good for the province. If we are going to recover we have to grow’ — Jon Reyes, Manitoba’s minister of economic development and jobs SUBMITTED Maple Leaf Foods is building a pre-cooked bacon expansion at its Lagimodiere facility. B.C.-based info-tech firm to hire 100 people in city WINNIPEG has succeeded in attracting another large employer in the information technology business. Burnaby, B.C.-based Traction on De- mand, one of the fastest growing companies in the country, is North America’s largest Salesforce consulting and app development firm. The company is in the process of hiring about 100 people in Winnipeg to tap into the diverse labour force in Winnipeg to help fuel its growth. “We recognize the evolving, competitive landscape in this city and look forward to expanding our team with this diverse, rich pool of talent” said Jolene Chan, chief im- pact officer, with Traction on Demand. The company has experienced exponen- tial growth in the last 10 years, with over 1,200 employees with operations. Company officials said that it recognizes the potential for tech growth and opportunities outside of Vancouver and it is continuing its expansion by locating new operations in Manitoba. It will be the company’s fifth location in Canada. It also has offices and employs people in Seattle, Jaipur, India as well as Australia and New Zealand. Megumi Mizuno, chief of staff at Trac- tion on Demand said the company does not plan to open a bricks and mortar office right away in Winnipeg but expects to do so in the new year. “But meanwhile,” she said, “The crew we have already hired are champing at the bit to have a place to get together.” The company is hiring mostly junior de- veloper, administrative and sales positions in Winnipeg. They are being recruited in groups of 15-to-20 every two months until they get to about 100 employees in Winni- peg. Mizuno said the company has lots of ex- perience in hiring non-IT professional and then turning them into IT professionals. The Manitoba government is investing $520,000 over the next two years to provide skills training. Traction on Demand is a cer- tified B Corp and the Winnipeg hires will be representative of the local population in line with the company’s diversity and inclusivity targets. (Certified B Corporations are businesses that meet verified social and environment- al performance, public transparency, and legal accountability standards that balance profit and purpose. ) Economic Development Winnipeg did a lot of work attracting Traction on Demand to Winnipeg Dayna Spiring, EDW’s president and CEO said, “Traction on Demand was particularly interested in our diverse talent pool, and we’re proud to help connect them to the tal- ent they need. It’s another win for our ex- panding tech sector and our city.” Traction on Demand works on all sorts of solution for users of Salesforce, the popular customer relationship management soft- ware platform. martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca MARTIN CASH MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES ‘It’s another win for our expanding tech sector and our city’ — Dayna Spiring, president and CEO of Economic Development Winnipeg B_05_Oct-06-21_FP_01.indd B5 10/5/21 8:46 PM ;