Manitoba-based pork producer and processor HyLife has announced the purchase of one of Canada’s largest independent hog farming operations.
The company has acquired the majority of ProVista Agriculture’s hog production facilities and transportation equipment.
The deal includes 37,000 sows and production facilities that employ 252 people in Manitoba and southeast Saskatchewan. It will boost HyLife’s annual production capacity by an estimated one million pigs.
“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,” say ProVista owners Harold and Arthur Rempel, who started the Steinbach, Man.-based company in 1996.
ProVista’s farms are located close to many of HyLife’s current operations.
“We have a long working relationship with ProVista and look forward to building on all the hard work that they have done,” says Grant Lazaruk, HyLife’s president and CEO, in a news release. “This acquisition enables HyLife to expand our production team and secure hog supply to facilitate future growth.”
Prior to the acquisition, La Broquerie, Man.-based HyLife said it produced around 2.3 million hogs and processed around 2 million hogs annually. HyLife is owned by two Asian companies: Charoen Pokphand Foods of Thailand purchased 50.1 percent ownership last year for $498 million, while the other 49.9 percent was already owned by ITOCHU of Japan.
Financial terms of the ProVista acquisition have not be disclosed.
ProVista will continue to operate most of its other businesses, including Penner Farm/Horizon Livestock and Poultry Supply, the ProVista Feeds feedmill and grain hauling/drying business, ProLine Pork Marketing, the Kohmar Farms grain farm, Quarry Oaks golf course, and three remaining hog farms that were not included in the sale to HyLife.
