Maple Leaf Foods is planning to open a new warehouse and distribution centre in Saskatoon next spring, transferring 90 jobs from its existing 11th Street plant.
Its main slaughter facility will close in June, with a date not yet set for the closure of the secondary processing division at that plant.
A second Maple Leaf Saskatoon plant, which makes deli meats, wieners and sausages, will remain open. It employs 300 to 500 workers, while the main plant employs about 350.
Norm Sabapathy, vice-president of labour relations for Maple Leaf Consumer Foods, said the company will continue to operate its distribution centre with existing staff at the 11th Street location until the new one is completed in May 2008.
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“It’s important that people know Saskatoon is still an important centre for us expanding our processed meat business,” he said.
The approximately $40 million, 170,000 sq. foot site will distribute meat products across Western Canada and into western Ontario.
Saskatoon city council agreed on April 2 to a land swap with Maple Leaf and $2.5 million in tax breaks for the new building. It will also pay $3 million toward the existing plant’s demolition.
Maple Leaf recently cancelled plans to build a $110 million processing plant in the city, later announcing its intention to shut down its current pork slaughter facility.
Phil Richards, Saskatoon city manager, was disappointed by those developments but pleased 90 jobs could be maintained.
“Saskatoon is well positioned if Maple Leaf chooses to do expansion in the future,” he said of its central location and access to rail lines and highways.
He hoped the new centre would draw other similar distribution businesses to Saskatoon.
Harvey Wagner of Sask Pork, who called Saskatoon a good staging point for moving meat products across Western Canada, welcomed the news on the distribution centre.
“It’s good for the city and the province and Maple Leaf too,” he said.
