Maple Leaf Pork Expands Burlington Plant

Maple Leaf Foods has announced that it is investing $11.8 million to expand Maple Leaf Pork's processing plant in Burlington, Ontario. The expansion will add 69 new jobs to the plant's existing 793.

``This is the first phase of fulfilling our commitment to invest in this facility, and supports our goal of building a world-class pork processing industry in Canada,'' said Patrick Jones, president of Maple Leaf Pork. The plant upgrade will increase line capacity to process hogs more efficiently. Currently, 35,000 hogs a week go through the plant. With the changes to the line, 8,500 additional hogs a week will be processed. The reconfiguration starts in October 1998 and will take seven months to complete. There will be no production downtime in order to complete the upgrade.

Maple Leaf Pork is a division of Maple Leaf Foods, Canada's largest food processing company. The company's products include fresh and prepared meats, poultry, fresh and frozen bakery products, seafood and animal feeds.