Cargill's Horizon Milling enters Canada with acquisition
strengthened its position in the Canadian bakery ingredients market
through the recent completion of an agreement to purchase the
grain-based foodservice and industrial businesses of Smucker Foods
of Canada.
The purchasing agreement, which was originally announced in July, will add around 450 employees to the company's 900 employees based in the US.
Canada's Horizon Milling GP, a partnership formed by Cargill and CHS, was created earlier this year with the purpose of acquiring these businesses from Smucker Foods of Canada, a wholly owned subsidiary of the JM Smucker Company.
The business in Canada includes three milling operations in Montreal, Quebec; Port Colborne, Ontario; and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, as well as three dry baking mixing facilities in Montreal, Saskatoon, and Burlington, Ontario. It also includes a research and development center and headquarters in Rexdale, Ontario.
Cargill and CHS had previously joined forces to create the US flour miller Horizon Milling LLC in 2002, which supplies the US market with a variety of wheat and flour products.
Now Canada's Horizon Milling GP, which has also licensed the rights to Smucker's Robin Hood brand, supplies the nation's bakery and food manufacturing markets with flour, oats and baking mixes.
"Horizon Milling is confirming its commitment to the baking industry in North America over the long term," said the company's president Guy Shoemaker.
"This acquisition complements our broader bakery strategy to provide distinctive customer solutions in supply-chain optimization, product formulation and risk management. We're pleased to have this opportunity to participate in the Canadian baking industry and to build on the contributions of the JM Smucker Company," he said in a statement.
