Canadian meat processor Olymel reveals $1.5m sausage upgrade

Canadian meat company Olymel will invest CAD 2 million ($1.55 million) to convert a section of its pork processing plant in Red Deer, Alberta and equip it to manufacture fresh sausages for customers in western Canadian.

The investment includes the addition of modern refrigeration facilities as well as new equipment in a separate section of the plant.

The work will begin in mid-July and will create 20 new jobs, which will be added to the current workforce of more than 1,400 employees, Olymel said.

“Thanks to this strategic investment, the Olymel Red Deer plant in Alberta is diversifying its local activities and enabling it, among other things, to add value to some of its raw materials,” said Olymel president and CEO Réjean Nadeau.

“The new section for fresh sausage production at the Red Deer plant is an integral part of an investment plan directed at greater penetration in the western Canadian market to meet growing demand for sausage products manufactured in Canada.”

The new activity will reduce transport transit times for customers in western Canada, therefore improving the shelf-life of products.

Olymel said it would be able to ‘serve the western Canadian market even better in product categories such as breakfast and fresh sausages, as well as bulk sausage meat’.

Its Red Deer factory accounts for more than 12% of its group-wide workforce – 1,400 out of more than 11,000 employees work there. As well as Alberta, Olymel operates production facilities in Québec, Ontario, New Brunswick and Saskatchewan.

The company turned over CAD 3.2 billion ($2.48 billion) in annual sales last year.

The company markets its products mainly under the Olymel, Lafleur and Flamingo brands.

Red Deer is a city of 100,000 people in southern Alberta, on the banks of the Red Deer River, half way between Edmonton and Calgary.