Workers at Grand River Foods' prepared food production facility in Cambridge, Ont. (File photo)
December 6, 2011 - Cambridge, Ont. based Grand River Foods has finalized the sale of its fresh poultry processing division to Maple Lodge Farms for an undisclosed sum. The sale was announced in November and finalized last week.
Grand River Foods is a fully integrated food processing company with a fresh poultry processing facility in Beamsville, Ont. and a prepared food production facility in Cambridge Ont.
Maple Lodge Farms is a family owned chicken processor with primary processing operations in Brampton and St Francois, New Brunswick, further processing operations in Mississauga and fully cooked operations in Brampton and Etobicoke, Ont. respectively.
Grand River Foods will now concentrate resources on its foods division, serving customers in the grocery and food service sectors. Maple Lodge Farms is expected to scale up its primary processing operations to more effectively serve its customer base in the retail, foodservice, further processed and other market sectors.
Maple Lodge Farms is also currently partnering with Nova Scotia and PEI growers to build a new primary processing operation in Berwick, Nova Scotia. Other Ontario operations include hatcheries, feed mills and a product safety laboratory.
"We remain committed to Ontario's food processing industry," Grand River Foods president Craig Richardson stated in a release. "Our intention is to reinvest in our operations, funding growth and development of our ready-to-eat, prepared foods division, which produces over 200 chicken protein products for the North American foodservice and retail segments."
"It was very important to us that the processing business remain in Ontario," he added. "We have every confidence that a respected company like Maple Lodge Farms will conduct business in a similar manner, honouring the relationships and contractual obligations with our valued growers."
The terms of the sale agreement also provide for Grand River Foods' purchase of fresh, processed chicken from Maple Lodge Farms for food product production.
"This acquisition is consistent with our long term plans and reaffirms our commitment to the chicken processing industry in Ontario," noted Michael Burrows, CEO of Maple Lodge Farms. "With Grand River Foods' fresh poultry processing division we continue to build on our founding family's legacy of quality and innovation in primary and further processing. We welcome their growers and suppliers to the Maple Lodge Farms family."
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