Brandon’s economic development officer is embarking on a trade mission to Europe next month with representatives from seven other cities across Canada.
But Don Allan’s plans are a bit different than the rest.
Where his colleagues are out to drum up new business, Allan’s itinerary is filled with meetings with companies who have tracked him down to get the lowdown on Brandon.
“It’s been just incredible,” Allan said about the number of requests for profiles of the city’s business climate.
Allan said Brandon was targeted for the trip because of its growing reputation as the hot spot for value-added meat processing.
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Of several sites across Western Canada, pork processing giant Maple Leaf Foods settled on Brandon as home for its new $112 million cut and kill pork plant.
Good for the future
“Here’s a company that did a nine-month site selection and decided to put it into Western Manitoba,” Allan said. “That is the best reference you could possibly get without a doubt.”
The mission, sponsored by Foreign Affairs and International Trade, includes stops in London, Amsterdam, Wales and Holland.
European-based companies that have contacted Brandon include:
- A Dutch manufacturer that specializes in assembly line technology. It wants to build a distribution plant somewhere in North America.
- Dutch producers are interested in relocating near Brandon. Environmental problems have frozen expansion of that country’s hog business.
- A London-based company specializing in construction of special grating for hog barn floors.
- An international company interested in processing pig hides into gelatin used in baking and to make candies such as jelly beans and gummi bears. Allan said this venture would bring 60 additional jobs to the region.
- Allan also said he has been talking to a South Korean group interested in setting up a specialized beef/pork processing facility here, but the Asian currency crises has put those plans on hold.
- A freezer company that specializes in labeling, deep chill and transportation.
- Intermodal distributor, interested in handling the loading and unloading of cooling containers onto flatbed rail cars. Maple Leaf has said the company is looking into moving product by rail.
- Trucking companies. Allan said there will likely be three or four times as many trucks on the road with the new plant running.
Most companies want to start medium-sized, $5 million to $10 million businesses in Brandon,
Allan said.
