Olymel adding 80 jobs with Quebec poultry plant expansion

Olymel is investing more than $31.5 million to expand its poultry slaughtering and cutting plant east of Montreal.

More than 80 positions and 35,200 sq. ft. will be added to the St-Damase, Montérégie facility.

As part of the investment, the plant will be equipped with "additional cutting, deboning and tray packing lines, as well as new high-capacity, state-of-the-art equipment," according to a press release.

Olymel president and CEO Réjean Nadeau said the additional space and equipment would allow the company to bring certain operations in-house. This will reduce product handling and transportation time and give the company "better control over quality, order management and logistics," he said.

Since 2016, Olymel has spent nearly $60 million in upgrades to the St-Damase plant, which produces more than 70 million kilos of poultry products each year.

Olymel also has operations in Ontario, Alberta, New Brunswick and Saskatchewan.