Maple Leaf Foods weighing options for Shelbyville plant

When Maple Leaf Foods announced it was purchasing a processing plant to produce tempeh products for its plant-based protein subsidiary Greenleaf Foods, that put plans to construct a new facility in Shelbyville, Indiana, on hold.

Roy Graber Headshot
(Maple Leaf Foods)
(Maple Leaf Foods)

When Maple Leaf Foods announced it was purchasing a processing plant to produce tempeh products for its plant-based protein subsidiary Greenleaf Foods, that put plans to construct a new facility in Shelbyville, Indiana, on hold.

However, the company’s chief financial officer indicated construction in Shelbyville could very well still commence. There is just a reduced sense of urgency.

In April 2019, Maple Leaf Foods and Greenleaf Foods announced the intent to construct a US$310 million plant-based protein processing facility in Shelbyville. The initial plans were for the Shelbyville facility to measure 230,000 square feet. However, in January, Maple Leaf Foods announced that it would acquire a facility for plant-based protein production in Indiana. That transaction is expected to close in April.

During a quarterly earnings call held on February 25, Maple Leaf Foods Chief Financial Officer Geert Verellen said the Indianapolis plant, combined with plants it earlier obtained through the acquisitions of Lightlife Foods and Field Roast Grain Meat Co., will -- at least for the short-term -- meet Maple Leaf Foods’ needs to process plant-based protein products.

“If you look at the capacity we have today available, all those plants that we have available will serve our capacity needs beyond 2022, so that gives us today a little more time to continue thinking about what Shelbyville needs to represent,” said Verellen. “We did some site preparation work (in Shelbyville), but no construction has started. But we keep that option open at this point.”

Verallen said the company had been actively looking at the best uses of its capital, and the tempeh plant in Indianapolis offered the company an “opportunistic solution.”

Maple Leaf Foods is also a leading Canadian producer of pork and poultry products. The Ontario-based company entered the plant-based protein sector in 2017 with the acquisition of Lightlife Foods.

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