Grand River Foods has closed its poultry processing plant in Paris, Ontario, Canada, moving production to a facility in nearby Beamsville, according to the Paris Star.
"We purchased some state of the art processing equipment in Europe and have been testing it at our Beamsville facility," said Craig Richardson, the company’s president. "When it proved to be effective, we had to make a decision about the Paris facility. It's regrettable, but it's the best business decision."
The new equipment enables the Beamsville plant to process both fryers and roasters. Prior to the closing, the Paris plant focused on roasters, while the Beamsville plant specialized in fryers. Both had run only part-time. A worker told the newspaper that the Paris plant had run just three days a week for the past 18 months.
The 70 workers from the Paris plant have been offered eight weeks of pay and severance, and Richardson expects that some will transfer to other company plants.
