More jobs are coming to Wallaceburg in the next six to eight months.
Due to an ongoing labour shortage in Quebec, Whyte’s Foods is closing its plant in Laval at the end of December and shifting some of its production and equipment to its facilities in Saint-Louis- de Richelieu and Ontario.
“The short-term plan is to transfer equipment, we need to transfer lines that they don’t have necessarily in Wallaceburg,” Claude Brière, Senior VP Sales & Marketing explains. “We’re making a new installation to allow to pack cherries, gherkins, squeeze relish, or other four litre products, we don’t have the equipment to do that yet.”
Brière says the company is looking to hire roughly 30 people by next summer.
“Short term, it will strengthen the position of our two production (lines.) We have two shifts there, both shifts will be strengthened, meaning we’re going to keep them busy year-round. Mid-term, for (next) summer before crop, we’re looking at adding a third shift of production at the building. We need approximately 30 people to run the shift.”
Some employees from the Laval plant will be shifted to the company’s other Quebec location, however jobs in Wallaceburg will be new hires.
Whyte’s Foods moved to Wallaceburg in 2018, opening a state-of-the-art facility making marinated food products for the food service and retail industry on Baseline Road the following year.
