HyLife made two business deals recently that shows the company continues to be serious about growing the business in North America.
The most recent announced on May 22, has HyLife partnering with Glen Taylor, purchasing 75 per cent equity interest of Prime Pork LLC from Taylor Corporation.
The critical element here is additional processing capacity for HyLife that includes Prime Pork, a recently renovated processing facility that produces, processes, and sells pork products out of Windom, Minnesota. The plant processes about 1.2 million hogs annually and will increase HyLife’s processing capacity to 3.2 million hogs annually.
“Prime Pork will allow us to expand our operations into the United States.,” said Grant Lazaruk, HyLife’s President and CEO about the acquisition. “Plants in both Canada and the US will strengthen our supply chain, giving us further diversity in our operations to better serve our customers around the world.”
Glen Taylor, chair and CEO of Taylor Corporation, likes the start-up of Prime Pork in Windom. Prime Pork’s location in southern Minnesota provides an abundance of resources, securing hog supply and the other raw materials required to operate a processing facility efficiently.
Lazaruk said it is a unique opportunity to team up with an operation that already has a network of producers, customers, and employees.
Earlier HyLife bought ProVista’s hog farming operations, a company currently ranked as one of Canada’s most extensive independent hog farming operations with most of its production in Manitoba. The deal included 37,000 sows, nursery, and finishing barns supported by 252 employees able to produce about one million hogs annually. ProVista’s farms are near HyLife’s current operations. The geographical proximity of the farms provides strategic synergies, as the newly acquired farms will be part of HyLife’s existing infrastructure. As both companies share similar values, HyLife welcomes new employees who know how to raise quality hogs.
“We are confident this sale represents an opportunity for our employees to grow with a global leader in the pork industry, and it fulfills our farming business aspirations,” said ProVista owners, Harold and Arthur Rempel.
Said Lazaruk of HyLife, this acquisition enables HyLife to expand its production team and secure hog supply to facilitate future growth.
In April 2019, HyLife announced it sold 50.1 percent of its shares to Charoen Pokphand Foods Public Company Limited (CPF) — a company based in Thailand. Itochu, a Japanese firm, will continue to own 49.9 percent of HyLife.
At the time of the sale, CEO Grant Lazaruk said it is a win-win for HyLife, CPF and Manitoba’s agricultural industry. Through this agreement, the company will build on the success of the growing pork business and brands to our customers globally.
The sale does mean there are no Manitoba-locally owned shares in HyLife.
HyLife is headquartered in La Broquerie, MB and employs over 2,700 people in multiple countries and produces 2.3 million hogs and processes two million hogs annually, with the pork sold to over 20 countries. •
— By Harry Siemens