Canadian Poultry Magazine

Granny’s Poultry planning $37 million expansion and renovation of Blumenort processing facility

By Government of Manitoba   

Features Business & Policy Trade Poultry Production Production

January 12, 2016 –  Granny’s Poultry is expanding its Blumenort, Manitoba processing facility and has received $2.5 million in funding from the federal and provincial governments to help support the project.

The company is implementing a plant expansion and renovation totalling $37 million, which will allow it to grow its business and purchase new equipment for processing, chilling, packaging and grading poultry, and improving production efficiency.

Granny’s Poultry distributes fresh and frozen Manitoba chicken and turkey across the country, and is one of the largest food processors in the province. currently represents 188 producer-member owners who supply the company with hatching eggs, chickens and turkeys. The company is the sole processor of turkeys in the province and employs approximately 500 Manitobans, supporting the livelihood of poultry producers, breeders and hatcheries.

Advertisement

Manitoba Agriculture, Food, and Rural, Development Minister Kostyshyn noted this investment also supports the Manitoba government’s goal of creating a $5.5 billion annual food processing industry by 2022, which is currently valued at $4.95 billion.

The expanded facility will provide an opportunity for up to 148 employees to upgrade their skills over the next two years through new training. Jobs and the Economy will further assist the $37 million plant upgrading through the provision of a secured, repayable Manitoba Industrial Opportunities Program (MIOP) term loan of $2.5 million. The MIOP program provides term loans to assist expanding businesses in Manitoba.

Craig Evans, CEO of Granny’s Poultry said in a release “the expansion and upgrading of our processing facilities will keep Granny’s growing and competitive for years to come.  Investing in state-of-the-art equipment will improve production efficiencies and help us develop new market opportunities for Manitoba poultry.”

The federal and provincial governments are investing $176 million of cost-shared programming in Manitoba under Growing Forward 2, a five-year, federal-provincial-territorial policy framework to advance the agriculture industry, helping producers and processors become more innovative and competitive in world markets.

The Growing Value program provides financial assistance to existing agri-businesses that need to make changes to adapt to market forces and environmental considerations, to increase their ability to compete in domestic and international markets.


Print this page

Advertisement

Stories continue below