HyLife Foods is cutting jobs in its home market of Canada, citing challenges in the pork processing industry.
The 87 job losses are mostly administrative roles, HyLife said. A spokesperson confirmed 58 positions will be eliminated at the company’s head office in Steinbach, Manitoba, and 29 at its processing site in Neepawa in the same province.
“The majority [of the cuts] are administrative with minimal impact on our production and range from director level to term employees supporting Canadian operations,” HyLife said in a statement.
“Despite best efforts, HyLife is unfortunately challenged by the ongoing realities in the pork industry. For the past few years, inflation, rising production costs, including feed and fuel, the uncertainty in hog and pork markets, and foreign-exchange rates have had a growing negative impact.”
CEO Grant Lazaruk added: “Over the last several months, these difficulties have become increasingly pressing and have created a situation where we need to be more efficient. We are carefully restructuring to endure the current global conditions. We know that long term, these incredibly hard choices will reposition and return our business to a place of strength and stability.”
The Canadian meat group said it has taken several cost-savings steps, including the sale of non-core assets and not filling some job vacancies.
HyLife sold a bankrupt US pork plant earlier this month. It closed the facility in Windom, Minnesota, earlier this year, affecting around 1,000 jobs.
A US-based pork company, Premium Iowa Pork, reportedly bought the HyLife facility in Minnesota. Premium Iowa Pork paid $13m for the acquisition, local publication Star Tribune reported.
Founded in 1994, HyLife operates feed, barn, fleet, and pork plant facilities in Canada.
