Resumption of Operations at the Olymel Vallée-Jonction plant

VALLÉE-JONCTION, QC, Aug. 19, 2013 /CNW Telbec/ - The Olymel hog slaughterhouse and butchering plant at Vallée-Jonction in the Beauce resumed operations early this morning after a week of forced interruption due to an ammonia leak. All last week, fire and emergency services, as well as specialized agencies such as the Commission de la santé et de la sécurité au travail (CSST), the Régie du bâtiment and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), among others, worked with company management to bring the situation back to normal and ensure that the facility posed no dangers for employee health and safety or for product integrity.

Since last Thursday and throughout the weekend, and after emergency services authorized a gradual resumption of activities, Olymel teams have been hard at work emptying the plant of products so they could be destroyed, while other groups were busy cleaning the facilities and carrying out sanitation procedures required so operations could be resumed this morning.

The first day of work will be devoted to slaughtering, as supplies to this facility have resumed after being diverted mainly to other Olymel plants, including Princeville and St-Esprit, in the Lanaudière region, in the days during which operations at the Vallée-Jonction facility were paralyzed. Two shifts will be on site involving more than 200 of the facility's 1,000 employees. As of tomorrow, employees assigned to cutting and other operations at the plant will return to work. The Vallée-Jonction plant has a slaughtering capacity of 37,500 hogs per week, and a large part of its production is destined for foreign markets, including Russia, Japan and the United States.

The origin of the ammonia leak, which occurred in a refrigeration zone, has been identified. Olymel will continue investigations to understand the causes and take all necessary measures to ensure that this kind of event does not happen in the future. Olymel is working with all the independent organizations involved in the ongoing investigations and will follow their recommendations. The company will also ensure that the detection systems and evacuation protocols that made it possible to avoid adverse effects on its employees' health always work optimally, as was the case when this incident occurred.

Olymel President and CEO Réjean Nadeau thanked all the employees of the Vallée-Jonction facility for their cooperation and understanding, as well as the company and plant management team, which spared no effort to overcome a difficult situation and ensure a fast and safe return to normal. "Olymel management also wishes to express its gratitude to the people living near the facility, who showed great patience in spite of the security measures imposed around the perimeter of the plant during the incident. Lastly, I wish to acknowledge the dedication and professionalism of all fire and emergency services that intervened, including those from Vallée-Jonction and the surrounding municipalities, and the various government agencies that were also mobilized at one time or another, as well as the collaboration of all the Vallée-Jonction municipal officials and the town's Mayor, Réal Bisson," Mr. Nadeau added.

About Olymel l.p.

Olymel is a Canadian leader in the slaughtering, processing and distribution of pork and poultry, with facilities in Quebec, Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan and New Brunswick. The company employs close to 10,000 persons and exports half of its production, mainly to the United States, Japan and Australia, as well as some sixty other countries. Its sales were approximately $2.3 billion last year, with a slaughtering and processing capacity of 160,000 hogs and 1.7 million birds per week.

SOURCE: Olymel l.p.

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