LEAMINGTON AND PELEE Work behind the scenes brings Heinz

27/2/2014
Work behind the scenes brings Heinz deal together | Windsor Star
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LEAMINGTON AND PELEE
ESSEX COUNTY / Leamington and Pelee
Work behind the scenes brings
Heinz deal together
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Claire Brownell
Feb 27, 2014 - 6:36 PM EST
Last Updated: Feb 27, 2014 - 8:48 PM EST
When Heinz announced it would close its 105-year-old Leamington
plant, Pradeep Sood saw an opportunity.
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The businessman, accountant and former chair of the Ontario
Chamber of Commerce had some experience in the food processing
industry and realized the potential. So he started making some calls to
other potential investors.
Sood said he and his business partners at the newly formed company
Highbury Canco were all intrigued by the ready-made skilled labour
force and the market potential of the Leamington plant. However, the
first step was making sure they had someone to sell the product to.
Now, he’s confident about that part too. With the help of a lot of people
http://blogs.windsorstar.com/2014/02/27/work-behind-the-scenes-brings-heinz-deal-together/
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Work behind the scenes brings Heinz deal together | Windsor Star
working behind the scenes, Highbury Canco now has a ready-made
customer, announcing it has signed a letter of intent to provide copacking, logistics and distribution services to the iconic ketchup
company.
“We’re fortunate that Heinz agreed to make us one of the co-packers.
It means we have orders right from the beginning,” Sood said. “The
story just sort of fell in place.”
One of the first calls Sood made was to Allan O’Dette, the current
on Team Canada's Paraly mpic hockey
team. He is bound for Sochi and
hungry for gold.
president of the Ontario Chamber and a friend. O’Dette said he
encouraged Sood to go full steam ahead.
“I said yeah – run with it. Try to put together a group. There’s a huge
opportunity,” O’Dette said. “We have an opportunity to export food to
the world. We do not want to lose that capacity. That’s why when
Pradeep said he had an interest, I said we’ll do whatever we can to
support you, because we need to keep that plant and that operation
down there.”
Windsor-Essex Chamber of Commerce president Matt Marchand said
he was driving home from the gym on a Saturday in December when
O’Dette called him to tell him about an interested potential investor.
After learning more about him, Marchand said he knew he should take
Essex
Vineyards without grapes,
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this one seriously.
“I knew that the investor had significant means, based on our
discussions,” Marchand said. ”It certainly ranked as a very serious
lead.”
Marchand got in touch with MPP Teresa Piruzza’s office (L — Windsor
West). Officials from the ministries of agriculture and food as well as
economic development, trade and employment got involved, along
with Sandra Pupatello, CEO of the WindsorEssex Economic
Development Corporation.
In the meantime, Rob Crawford, president of the United Food and
Commercial Workers local representing the Heinz workers, had said
publicly that if there was anything the union could do to keep the plant
from shutting down, he was willing to talk about it. About two weeks
ago, factory manager Sam Diab called Crawford into a meeting.
“He asked me if I still meant what I said when the announcement
http://blogs.windsorstar.com/2014/02/27/work-behind-the-scenes-brings-heinz-deal-together/
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Work behind the scenes brings Heinz deal together | Windsor Star
happened that we were closing,” Crawford said. “I said to Sam, that
offer stands. He said he had been approached by a couple of investors
and they’re interested in a co-pack operation here. And that’s kind of
where it took off.”
News of the co-packing agreement is bittersweet for Crawford’s
members. Some of them will keep their jobs, but Crawford is expecting
to make significant concessions.
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“Some changes are going to have to happen in the collective
agreement,” Crawford said, anticipating that one of them will be a
switch from a defined benefit pension plan to defined contribution. ”It
was a pretty rich benefit package we have. But we’re going to have benefits and
they’re going to be pretty good benefits. Wages, I can’t elaborate on that right
now.”
Diab is 31, a third-generation Heinz employee born and raised in
Leamington who was promoted to plant manager about a year ago
after nine years with the company. Sood said the Highbury Canco
V ia Rail passengers headed to and
from Windsor will be getting on buses
after a train struck and killed a
pedestrian Wednesday morning.
investors brought him on board because they wanted someone who
knew the ins and outs of the company.
“One of the pieces that we felt was necessary was to have somebody
who understood the project and the Leamington plant. Of course, it’s a
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huge plant and it has a lot of potential. We as a group contacted Sam
and got him as part of our team,” Sood said.
Sood cautioned that the deal is far from final. No one has signed
anything and the parties involved still have some research to do before
they get to that stage.
Still, he’s already dreaming big.
“If I can get every Canadian drinking a glass of Bloody Mary at the
bar, I’ll have the plant where I want it to be,” Sood said.
T ags: Heinz, Leamington, Matt Marchand, Ontario Chamber of Commerce,
Pradeep Sood, Sam Diab, Sandra Pupatello, Windsor Essex Chamber of
Commerce
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http://blogs.windsorstar.com/2014/02/27/work-behind-the-scenes-brings-heinz-deal-together/
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