Olymel is investing $2 million in its Red Deer pork plant for a sausage production unit.
“This will be a new activity with diversification to serve retailers in Western Canada,” said company spokesperson Richard Vigneault.
Olymel plan is to produce breakfast sausages and bulk sausage meat for distribution in Western Canada. It added a sausage division to its plant in Trois Riviere, Que., last year.
The new venture requires modernized refrigeration facilities as well as new equipment in a separate section of the plant. Construction was set to begin this month.
The Red Deer plant employs 1,400 people in a single shift. The sausage unit will add another 20 jobs.
Olymel is Canada’s largest pork processor and employs more than 11,000 workers with production and processing facilities in Quebec, Ontario, Alberta, New Brunswick and Saskatchewan.
Annual sales are $3.2 billion and about a third of its production is exported.
