SASKATOON (Staff) – The family feud over control of Saskatoon’s Intercontinental Packers Ltd. has become so nasty the Mitchell family may sell out rather than resolve its differences.
Last week, after a Saskatchewan court heard the Mitchell family has agreed to sell Intercontinental Packers Ltd. of Saskatoon to Burns Foods Ltd. of Calgary, the two feuding brothers pointed fingers at each other for allowing the company to fall out of family hands.
“I think it’s just sort of a vindictive thing,” said Fred Mitchell, who ran the company for 19 years until 1995. “I don’t think it is in everybody’s best interest.”
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Fred has offered to buy the company from his brother, sister and mother, but says they won’t show him the company’s books and aren’t interested in selling to him. A court has granted Fred an injunction preventing the family from selling the company but the family is appealing.
Fred is also suing the company and his family for allegedly driving him out of Intercon and he is trying to win control of the company.
Fred’s brother Chip, who now runs Intercon, said a number of factors pushed his family into a deal with Burns, but the two lawsuits Fred recently launched provoked the drive to sell now.
“We had the barrage of unfortunate press and publicity,” he said in an interview.
“I think we decided quite recently that the future of the company really is best served by removing the family from the struggle and finding a good home for the company.”
Chip said having Burns take over Intercon will provide a stable future for the plant, its employees and hog producers.
With many analysts predicting a consolidation and shakedown in the industry over the next few years, Chip said Burns will be able to keep the company strong.
“I think the decision was made thinking of what was the highest good for everybody concerned,” he said.
Sale seen differently
But Fred sees the sell-off as proof of the family’s lack of commitment.
“I think that’s a cop-out,” he said about Chip’s consolidation worries. “I think they just want to sell the place. I don’t think they are as interested – they never were – in running the place.”
Fred said he was able to steer the company through worse economic downturns than now, and a family operation is more likely to stay open and survive the coming consolidation than one owned by a major company.
“Without the right management and direction, this company could easily become a parking lot,” he said.
“It could easily become a victim or a casualty of this consolidation … A few years down the road there might not be anything left except a greasy spot out there.”
Chip said the decision to sell to Burns was difficult for his family.
“The tradition that the Mendel-Mitchell family has in the community, in Saskatoon and in the province, and our deep attachment to the company weighed very strongly on our decision,” he said.
Community leader
Intercon was founded by Fred Mendel, the feuding brothers’ grandfather.
He came to Saskatoon during the Second World War, built the company from almost nothing and made a name for the family through community service and by supporting the arts.
The city’s largest art gallery is named after him.
