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By Alice McFarlane

Meat packing company announces layoffs

Managers at a pork and poultry packer lose jobs

Oct 21, 2022 | 11:00 AM

MELFORT, Sask. – Canadian pork and poultry packer Olymel announced management layoffs, citing the company’s growth challenges.

Olymel will eliminate 177 management positions while 120 positions became open in recent months, 57 current employees were given layoff notices on Monday primarily in its offices in Quebec.

The company said the decision was made after carefully considering the effectiveness and redundancy of the administrative support functions within the organization.

Olymel President and CEO Yanick Gervais said the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and labour shortages, market and supply chain disruptions, raw material price inflation, and an uncertain global economic landscape were all factors.

“After careful analysis, the difficult decision to significantly reduce our management staff is an answer to the need to adapt to unpredictable market conditions and to better position the company for the future,” Gervais said.

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Olymel is headquartered at St-Hyacinthe, Que., and employs about 14,000 people across Canada with slaughter and processing facilities. These include 15 pork and poultry plants in Quebec, a Red Deer pork plant, two poultry plants and a pork plant in Ontario, plus the Sunnymel poultry plant in New Brunswick.

Its other operations include the Olysky hog production business at Humboldt, Sask., distribution centres in Quebec and Red Deer, and processing machinery, trucking, and sales facilities in Quebec.

The company’s combined slaughter capacity in Canada sits at about 185,000 hogs and 2.4 million birds per week.

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alice.mcfarlane@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @farmnewsNOW