HyLife to embark upon major expansion

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Published on Friday, October 14, 2016

By Kate Jackman-Atkinson
Neepawa Banner/Neepawa Press

A multi-million expansion plan is moving ahead for Neepawa’s largest business. Over the next two years, HyLife’s Neepawa processing plant will see its building and workforce grow as part of a $125 million company-wide expansion plan. Growing sales into the Asian market are driving the plan to modernize and expand the company’s integrated pork production system.  

In order to support this growth and better meet international competitive pressure, the company is reinvesting into their integrated system. As part of the plan, HyLife Foods, the Neepawa processing plant, will see a 130,000 square feet expansion, with most of the work focussing on the cut floor, as well as packaging and shipping areas.  They will also invest in new technologies and processes to improve productivity and yields, as well as increasing shelf life. This is expected to take about two years.

HyLife president, Claude Vielfaure said that once the expansion is complete, they are expecting to move to a full double shift and the ability to process 1.9 million hogs a year.

 Vielfaure explained, “HyLife’s investment into growing our Japanese and Chinese markets has been very rewarding and is sending the signal that we can do more.” Since entering the Japanese market in 2010, HyLife has grown to become Canada’s number one fresh chilled pork exporter to Japan, generating $200 million worth of annual sales into that market.

Producing a quality product for this market of knowledge consumers has been a priority for the company, Vielfaure explained, “Japanese consumers understand the quality of pork better than those in any other country… HyLife has taken that unique Japanese consumer demand for its domestic pork and worked tirelessly to recreate this taste profile at home in our integrated production and processing system.”  

The company also recently opened a restaurant in the trendy Daikanyama district of Tokyo, to further highlight the quality and taste profile of the company’s products. Vielfaure said that effort has resulted in a strong and growing base of Japanese consumers who regularly seek the company’s products, which are raised and processed in Manitoba.

The vertically integrated company owns feed mills, genetics laboratories and barns as well as a processing plant, which allows them to control all aspects and production and better target value added markets, such as those in Japan.

The company is also growing its presence in the Chinese market.  Since entering that market in 2008, the company has grossed $80 million in sales.  In September, while in China with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, they also announced a new contract with the Chinese e-commerce platform JD.com.

The company-wide expansion will also include new finishing barns and a feed mill.  Vielfaure said that the location for the barns hasn’t yet been decided, but with a moratorium on new construction in place in the south-eastern part of the province, it will likely be somewhere in the province’s south-western.

Once complete, the expansion will add up to 165 new jobs throughout the province, bringing the company’s total workforce up to 2,000 employees.