Maple Leaf Foods has completed construction of a $182 million expansion to its Winnipeg, Canada prepared meats plant, significantly increasing its bacon production capacity with a new in-house capacity for pre-cooked, microwaveable bacon.
The investment in new state-of-the-art manufacturing equipment and cultivated in-house expertise represents a Bacon Centre of Excellence within Maple Leaf and positions the company to meet the growing customer and consumer demand in the pre-cooked bacon market and drive innovation. The project is one of the many investments the company has been making as it continues to unlock value in its growing prepared meats business.
Final commissioning of the 73,000-sq-ft expansion is expected to be completed in the near term, with commercial production ramping up over the course of the coming months. By building this capacity in-house, this plant will become the company’s primary pre-cooked bacon production facility. As part of the expansion, the company is in the process of adding approximately 350 new positions at the plant, bringing total plant employment to over 1,900 people.
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“We are very excited to see this project come to life,” says Michael H. McCain, president and CEO. “Our vision to become the most sustainable protein company on Earth applies even to our very best convenience food, which includes delicious pre-cooked bacon. This state-of-the-art facility will deliver sustainably made cooked bacon products from meat humanely raised and without antibiotics, made by a carbon neutral company. We are really proud of this.”
Maple Leaf Foods is a leading Canadian bacon producer, with eight brands in the Canadian market.
