Worker shortages and supply chain stress continue to wreak havoc on Canada’s meatpacking industry, with Olymel slashing management ranks by 177 jobs.
The Quebec-based company says the cuts will mostly fall within Quebec and about two-thirds of the cuts involve currently empty positions. As the company faces a combination of cost pressures, slimming down management is part of an attempt to get costs down.
“The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic and a historic labour shortage at our facilities, market and supply chain disruptions, raw materials, price inflation and an uncertain global economic landscape are all factors that make a case for optimized company business models,” said Olymel president and chief executive Yannick Gervais in announcing the cuts.
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“Olymel is no exception. 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.”
A dearth of workers is behind the struggles of many packers across North America to run at full capacity, a problem shared by hog barn operators. Some facilities such as Maple Leaf Foods’ Brandon slaughter plant have run beneath capacity for years due to problems finding and retaining sufficient staff.
Those problems have been exacerbated by the pandemic, which shut down both temporary foreign worker travel and virtually snuffed out immigration for two years.
Many companies have raised wages to attract people, a cost increase which has combined with higher livestock prices, other commodity price increases and export challenges to cause the ink to flow red for many.
Olymel operates in New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, Saskatchewan and Alberta. It employs about 14,000 people, makes about $4.5 billion per year in sales and exports about one-third of its production.
