Changes in store for Neepawa Food Processors
- Details
- Published on Thursday, March 20, 2014
myWestman.ca
Last week, Groupe Westco, the company that owns the chicken barns in Neepawa, announced plans to build three new broiler barns in the De Salaberry area. These new barns will replace the barns in Neepawa, which the company purchased in 2006.
“In 2006, the company purchased Neepawa Food Processors Ltd. in Neepawa, with a production capacity of 2.8 million kg a year,” says Raynald Saint-Hilaire, Groupe Westco’s Manitoba representative. “However, because of its proposed geographic location, this new site near Arnaud is much more suitable and brings us closer to the Dunn-Rite slaughterhouse in Winnipeg and also to Carleton Hatcheries in Grunthal near St. Pierre-Jolys.”
Construction of the new barns is aimed at enhancing the production chain flow and profitability.
Under marketing board rules, the quota had to stay with the barns for five years. That time limit has since passed and the quota can be moved.
These three new broiler houses will hold 212,000 broiler chickens representing close to three million kg a year. The new barns will also make use of new technology in heating, lighting, litter and ventilation.
Neepawa Food Processors has deep roots in the area. Like many business ventures, it grew out of a need for job and business preservation. Many years ago, Neepawa had two livestock buying stations.
One was Canada Packers, located near the site of the old feed mill on Dominion Road. The other was owned by Swifts’, on the current location of the Zen Development townhouses at Commerce Street and First Avenue.
The Swifts’ location also had a hatchery and a poultry processing plant. As the number of farm flocks dwindled in the 1950s and 60s, the slaughter plant was about to close. Local poultryman Dick Foley and a group of local businessmen wanted to save the processing plant. In order to do so, they had to get a constant supply of chickens.
The group worked under NADCO (Neepawa and Area Development Corporation) and obtained the land on Dominion Road. The barns were built and the processing plant jobs saved. At that time, the operation also included a hatchery, barns and the processing plant.
As the years went by, the company changed hands and the plant was deemed to be outdated, processing shifted to plants in Winnipeg. Eventually the hatchery faded away leaving only the chicken barns.
Groupe Westco has not yet announced what its plans are for the Neepawa barns or the 200 odd acres of land it owns within the town of Neepawa limits.
It’s expected that the new barns may be in production by the end of 2015.
