The government-owned meat processing plant in Melfort, Sask., is for sale.
Thomson Meats Ltd. produces value-added products under its own brand and is also the home of the Saskatchewan Toll Processing Centre.
The centre was part of the province’s meat strategy in the wake of BSE. The facility was designed in anticipation of greater domestic slaughter and processing, to help companies take value-added meat products to commercial scale production.
However, the expected demand didn’t materialize, and the facility has consistently lost money.
It also doesn’t fit with the government’s philosophy that governments should not own such businesses.
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Mitch Demyen, senior adviser to the deputy agriculture minister, said the plant was designed to be flexible and should be attractive to potential buyers. The federally inspected plant is producing its own branded products, and Demyen said a change in ownership shouldn’t affect that.
TML, as the facility is known, was first established as a family-owned meat business in 1960.
The government in 1995 invested $4 million to help TML expand into Asia. Five years later it invested the same amount to help develop value-added products. But the facility struggled, and was taken over solely by the Agricultural Credit Corp. of Saskatchewan in December 2003.
In 2005, the government announced it would spend $3.3 million to upgrade the plant for custom, or toll, processing. The idea was to help clients take their products to market, particularly after BSE closed international borders to Canadian cattle. However, only a handful of clients have used the processing centre after the re-opening of international borders.
According to the Dec. 31, 2007, financial statements, the most recent available, the company’s operating loss for the year was more than $1.26 million. The government has had to make additional grants to keep the plant going. The net operating loss in 2007 was $43,298 and the accumulated deficit was nearly $157,000.
