RED DEER, Alta. – The ideal place for the new Maple Leaf Foods hog slaughtering plant would be Calgary, says the head of Alberta’s hog board.
“If I was Maple Leaf, I would build in Alberta. I wouldn’t be that far away from Fletcher’s,” Ed Schultz told the Alberta Agriculture Economics Association meeting.
Schultz, general manager of the Alberta Pork Producers Development Corporation, was answering a question from the audience about where he would put the proposed $70 million hog slaughtering plant proposed by Maple Leaf Foods.
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“Calgary has most of the distribution systems for the food industry. That would be a natural,” he said. “In other business the best place to be is beside your competition.”
Fletcher’s Fine Foods of Red Deer, Maple Leaf’s main competition, is also planning to expand its plant this year.
Maple Leaf has been shopping around Western Canada for a site for a new hog slaughtering plant.
Schultz said he thought Alberta would be the sensible choice for the new plant because Maple Leaf already owns the Burns slaughtering facility in Winnipeg. Saskatchewan doesn’t have the infrastructure to support the plant and Fletcher’s new part owner, Saskatchewan Wheat Pool, is headquartered in that province.
