Transaction amount was not disclosed
By Diego Flammini
Assistant Editor, North American Content
Farms.com
Quebec-based meat processor Olymel announced it has acquired Pinnacle Farms Inc., a hog farm located near Strathmore, Alberta.
As part of the acquisition, Olymel receives a quarantine barn, sow barns, nursery barns and finishing barns. The processor also takes ownership of Pinnacle’s inventory. Olymel will manage of the operations and employ the 30 people who worked for Pinnacle.
Olymel will also lease finishing farms near Medicine Hat, Alberta.
Company representatives say the acquisition of Pinnacle Farms will help Olymel achieve a goal it has in mind for the year 2020.
“This addition in our pork sector should support the target Olymel has set for 2020: to produce more than 1.5 million hogs annually in Western Canada in order to meet the growing demand from its customers,” Olymel president and CEO Réjean Nadeau said in a release.
Olymel says the acquisition will increase the number of sows available in Western Canada to 52,000 and will add nearly 100,000 more hogs to the processing plant in Red Deer. It will also require 30,000 contract finishing spaces.
Executives from Pinnacle Farms say the acquisition can help the company explore otherwise untapped markets.
“This transaction opens the door to the company's further development, and will enable it to serve new markets," Ron Arnason, director of Pinnacle Farms Inc., said in the release.