Economic Development Brandon  | home | contact us | search |
 Quick Contact |
Following the reports section, an accounting of significant milestones in the Maple Leaf Consumer Foods development in Brandon appears. Reports: Maple Leaf Consumer Foods Brandon City of Brandon Update on Maple Leaf's 2nd Shift - August 2007 Population and Housing Projections for Maple Leaf's Second Shift March 2007
Comments on Population Projections and Realized Population Growth in Brandon Following the Arrival of Maple Leaf Foods April 2007 Looking Back at the Maple Leaf Project: August 2011 Quick Facts - Maple Leaf Foods May 2010 Maple Leaf Foods – Brandon Facility Brandon facility: Employees ~ 2365 employees (~ 165 salaried employees, ~2200 hourly employees) Staff turnover as of 2010 – 10% Facility is ~ 640,000 sq ft World class facility with regards to health and safety Processes ~85,000 hogs per week Invests an average of $4-6 million in capital improvements annually, budgeted $10 million in capital improvements in 2010. Annual operating costs, 2010: $63 million Payroll costs (direct labour costs), 2010: $103 million Annual tax bill, 2011: $1.5 million of which $888,000 went to education with $502,000 to the Brandon School Division Total plant costs, excluding hog purchases, 2010: $230 million Total hog purchases, 2010: $622 million Hogs sourced from:
April 2010 Between 2004 and 2009, Brandon welcomed over 1700 foreign workers at the Maple Leaf Consumer Foods facility, the majority of which arrived on a temporary foreign work visa. To date approximately 1400 of these newcomers remain employed at the Brandon facility, with 75% of them in possession of their permanent residency. In total, almost 4000 dependent arrivals [spouses and children] joining the individuals who came to Brandon via temporary foreign work visas are expected to have settled in Brandon by early 2011. This projection does not include the number of children who are born to these families after they have settled in the region. Brandon's cultural landscape has changed significantly since 2004. In 2006, Census data reported visible minorities comprised 4% of Brandon's population, up from 2.5% in the 2001 Census. Indications are that this percentage will grow to approximately 10% in the 2011 census. Historically, the City of Brandon welcomed approximately 65 immigrants annually. In 2006, Brandon’s annual average immigrants arriving more than doubled with 172 immigrants recorded as destined for Brandon. By 2007 the number of immigrants arriving annually was ten times the historical average. The arrival of 641 immigrants in Brandon in 2007 represented 5.8% of the total immigration for Manitoba. In 2008, 664 immigrant arrivals were recorded. Preliminary numbers indicate in 2009 there were 1,149 immigrants who settled in Brandon. In addition to English, it is now common to hear other languages such as Amharic, French, Mandarin, Russian, Spanish and Ukrainian throughout the community. October 2009 Maple Leaf Consumer Foods Celebrates 10 Years Projected Family Reunification Dates October 2009 April 2009 To date, Maple Leaf Consumer Foods has hired approximately 1,500 foreign workers from four language groupings. Family reunification till the end of 2008 brought an additional 1,000 family members, with the majority of those being from the Spanish language grouping followed by the Mandarin language grouping. In 2009, Maple Leaf expects to hire approximately 200 foreign workers from the Spanish language grouping. The following link details anticipated family reunification dates for 2009 onward for foreign workers employed at the Brandon Maple Leaf Consumer Foods facility, based on their original arrival date. Projected Family Reunification Dates 2009 December 2008 The implementation of second shift at the Brandon Maple Leaf facility was completed in fall 2008. The Brandon facility is now processing an average of 85,000 hogs per week which equates to approximately 7,700 metric tonnes of live hogs. The facility currently employs over 2,250 people comprised of approximately 2,100 hourly and 150 salaried staff. Approximately 70% of the full-time staff complement is foreign in origin, many of which are already permanent residents. June 2008 On June 16th, 2008, Brandon City Council awarded the tender for the construction of the membrane building at the Centralized Wastewater Treatment Facility to Crane Steel Structures. Authority was also granted for Zenon Environmental Inc. to supply and install the membrane for the Phase 2 upgrade at the Centralized Wastewater Treatment Facility. March 2008 Funding to expand Brandon’s industrial waste-water treatment facility was confirmed on March 7th, 2008. The province will provide a total contribution of $7.8 million towards the $20 million upgrade. The City of Brandon and industrial partners will provide the remaining funding. The Upgrades will move the City one step closer to a central waste water treatment facility while simultaneously permitting Maple Leaf to increase processing of hogs from 75,000 to 90,000 hogs per week. January 2008 In 2007, Brandon welcomed approximately 470 international recruits from China and Columbia. In addition to welcoming the unaccompanied international recruits, reunification of families of international recruits who have received landed immigrant status resulted in 223 spouses and 429 children relocating to Brandon in the past 12 months. Of the children that arrived in this contingent, 373 or 87% are 12 years or younger. As part of the second shift ramp up at the Brandon Maple Leaf facility, approximately 500 international recruits are expected in 2008. The international recruits will arrive in groups of 60 - 70 every one to two weeks from Mauritius, Ukraine, Honduras and Georgia. The first group of approximately 50 individuals will arrive from Mauritius in early March. August 2007 City of Brandon Update on Maple Leaf's 2nd Shift - August 2007 The first 24 of 150 Columbians arrived in Brandon on August 24th, 2007 to begin working at the Brandon Maple Leaf facility. The remaining 126 Columbians will arrive in small groups every two weeks over the next few months. July 2007 As part of the second shift ramp up at the Brandon Maple Leaf Consumer Foods facility, 208 Chinese foreign workers arrived in Brandon between mid June and early July to begin working at the Brandon facility. 165 Columbian foreign workers are scheduled to arrive in Brandon between August and September 2007. A good percentage of foreign workers that have been in Brandon for several years have now applied for or have already received landed immigrant status, and have begun to relocate their families to Brandon.
May 2007 In May 2007, Maple Leaf Consumer Foods began expansion of the coolers at the Brandon facility to accommodate 2nd shift and visited Bogota to interview and hire 172 Columbians who are slated to arrive in Brandon between August and October 2007. April 2007 Maple Leaf Consumer Foods received approval from Service Canada to bring an additional 400 foreign workers to Brandon in 2007. Maple Leaf plans to bring an additional 250 foreign workers to Brandon between July and October 2007. Roughly one quarter of these workers will replace employees lost to attrition, while the remaining workers are required to support the second shift expansion. Pretreatment facility expansions commenced in April of 2007 to accommodate a second shift at the Brandon facility. March 2007 As part of the second shift ramp up at the Brandon Maple Leaf Consumer Foods facility, 200 Chinese foreign workers are nearing completion of extensive English as an Additional Language (EAL) classes and meat cutting training in China. The workers are expected to arrive in Brandon in mid June 2007 to begin working at the Brandon facility. February 2007 Work commenced on expanding the barns at the Maple Leaf Consumer Foods Brandon facility in order to accommodate increased processing of an additional 25,000 hogs per week. January 2007 Work commenced on the City of Brandon’s industrial wastewater treatment facility to accommodate the increased processing of an additional 25,000 hogs per week at Maple Leaf’s pork processing facility. Maple Leaf Consumer Foods will invest approximately $11 million in upgrades that will allow the Company to meet the Province’s stringent new environmental regulations and significantly reduce the concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorous entering the Assiniboine River. December 2006 Maple Leaf receives licencing to proceed with Waste Water Treatment Upgrades
January - December 2006
Quick Maple Leaf Consumer Foods Brandon facility facts
The addition of 2nd shift at the Brandon plant Michael McCain confirmed at the September 12th, 2006 Chamber of Commerce luncheon that Maple Leaf would double shift the Brandon plant pending approval of the Industrial Waste Water Treatment Plant funding. The full implementation of 2nd shift at the Brandon plant will require an additional 1000 employees. If all proceeds as expected, the move to 2nd shift will occur in two phases: Phase 1 will start up in May 2008 and will double shift the kill and require 260 additional employees. Phase 2 will start up in May 2009 and will double shift the cut and require 740 additional employees. Phase 1 and Phase 2 timelines are best guesses and subject to change. Indications are that Maple Leaf Consumer Foods is actively seeking to accelerate first phase start up with a target date of July/August 2007, provided all necessary wastewater and immigration approvals can be obtained. Employee recruitment When recruiting employees, Maple Leaf targets local, regional, provincial, national and international employees in the order they are listed. Based on availability of Canadian labour, they anticipate that the majority of 2nd shift employees will be foreign workers. China, Guatemala, Philippines, Germany and El Salvador will all be considered as potential 2nd shift employees. January - December 2005
January - December 2004
Fall 2003 Maple Leaf received conditional approval of their application to expand the Industrial Waste Water Treatment Facility to faciliate the addition of a second shift at Maple Leaf Consumer Foods, Brandon's facility. June 25th, 26th, 27th and July 15th and 16th, 2003 Maple Leaf Consumer Foods and the City of Brandon participated in a Clean Enviornment Hearing pertaining to the proposed expansion to the City of Brandon's Industrial Waste Water Treatment Facility. May 14th and 15th, 2003 The City of Brandon and Maple Leaf conducted openhouses in both Brandon and Portage La Prairie to share information and respond to public questions pertaining to the proposed alteration to the City of Brandon Industrial Waste Water Treatment Facility to facilitate the addition of a second shift at Maple Leaf's Brandon facility. March 19th, 2003 The City of Brandon filed a proposed alteration to their Industrial Waste Water Treatment Facility (IWWTF) with Manitoba Conservation today in preparation for Maple Leaf's plans to add a second shift. The City of Brandon filed a proposed alteration to their Industrial Waste Water Treatment Facility (IWWTF) with Manitoba Conservation on March 19th, 2003. Please visit the link below for application details. Electronic Public Registry pertaining to Brandon's IWWTF Press Release regarding Brandon's proposed expansion of their Industrial Waste Water Treatment Facility. Summary of Brandon's proposed expansion of their Industrial Waste Water Treatment Facility. Fact sheet pertaining to Brandon's proposed expansion of their Industrial Waste Water Treatment Facility. November 30th, 2002 44 El Salvadorians arrived in Brandon today to work at Maple Leaf Consumer Foods Brandon. The new residents were welcomed to Brandon during a reception at the Riverbank Discovery Centre. Below are some images of the new employees settling into employment with at the Brandon plant. New Employees from El Salvador Orientation for the new employees from El Salvador Orientation for the new employees from El Salvador September 1st, 2002 Workers at Brandon's Maple Leaf Consumer Foods facility received a rare mid-contract amendment that provides across the board wage increases and other improvements effective September 1, 2002. New plant employees will now start at $9.45 per hour. The top rate for production line workers with perfect attendance is $15.20 an hour, maintenance and trade workers top out at $25.80 per hour. Maple Leaf is also bumping up a 50-cent increase normally offered after six months of service to three months. July 29, 2002 Maple Leaf Consumer Foods officially opens a $ 1.9 million employee cafeteria at its Brandon facility. The cafeteria is approximately 14,000 square feet and includes a retail sales outlet for employees only. April 2002 Maple Leaf has unconditionally donated four North End Acres of land worth $80,000 to the City of Brandon. The property is located along the Assiniboine River at 805 Parker Blvd. March 14th, 2002 Twenty eight more Mexicans relocating to Brandon to work at the Maple Leaf facility are expected to arrive around March 22nd, 2002. February 14th, 2002 Maple Leaf confirms the arrival of at least 28 more Mexicans to work at the Brandon plant pending the Canadian Embassy to Mexicos's final review. If the plans proceed as scheduled, the Mexicans will arrive in mid March 2002. Maple Leaf has expressed a desire to import more Mexicans and possibly Ukranians to begin filling 100 new jobs they are creating on the by-products and ham boning lines. February 4th, 2002 Maple Leaf Consumer Foods announces the construction of a $ 1.9 million employee cafeteria at its Brandon facility. The cafeteria will be approximately 14,000 square feet and is expected to open by September 2003. Included in this expansion is a retail sales outlet for employees only. January 5th, 2002 |
TOLL FREE: 1-866-729-2132 | PH: 204 - 729 - 2132 | EMAIL: econdev@brandon.ca
Business | Live - Work - Play | Data Centre | Maps | Media Gallery
News & Events | Contact Us | Search | Conditions of Use