Ritz Announces New Value Added

[agstar77]

Medicine Hat ADM flour mill to close.

[FarmRanger]

Why? Did they lose their competitive advantage of artificially cheap wheat on this side of the border?

[ColevilleH2S]

Lol agstar your so clever.
Wasn't that thing built in 1912 or
something like that?

[notaredneck]

Clap Clap Clap. More mills to follow this path

[TOM4CWB]

Coleville,

Last upgraded in 1956?

40 people worked there!

I wonder how much extra came out of the CWB pool
accounts to keep that mill open over the past 15 years?

Cheers!

Background:

"Hermann said the company was pleased with the
performance at the facility that produced about 390
tonnes of flour each day to fill large commercial
contracts as far away as British Columbia and
Edmonton.
But, Hermann said, officials told the morning meeting
that cost-wise it was better to centralize operations in
Calgary where a similarly-sized facility mills hard and
soft wheat, along with rye. The Medicine Hat mill only
processes soft wheat."
http://www.medicinehatnews.com/front-page-
news/adm-mill-closing-down-02012013.html

ADM to shut Medicine Hat flour mill
Century-old Ogilvie plant to close at end of May

Feb 15, 2013 7:18 PM - 0 comments TEXT SIZE
By: Staff
Alberta, Crops
U.S. agrifood giant Archer Daniels Midland is set to
permanently close its century-old Medicine Hat, Alta.
flour mill at the end of May.

The Chicago-based food firm quietly announced Jan.
31 it would close the former Ogilvie Flour Mills plant
and supply the plant's customers from its "larger, more
centrally-located" flour mill at Calgary.

The decision followed "careful consideration as we
look to optimize our milling operations," the company
said.

The Medicine Hat plant's 40 employees will get
severance and "outplacement services" and will be
encouraged to seek work at other ADM locations,
company spokesperson Jackie Anderson said in a
statement.

According to Ogilvie archives at the University of
Manitoba, the Medicine Hat facility was built in 1913
and underwent a major capacity expansion in 1956.

That expansion followed the closure of Medicine Hat's
Lake of the Woods Milling Co. facility, which Ogilvie
bought along with the rest of that company and its
Five Roses flour brand in 1954.

In 1968, John Labatt Ltd. bought Ogilvie, which
evolved into Canada's largest flour miller by the time
ADM bought its operations from Labatt in 1994. ADM
sold the Five Roses brand to Smucker Foods in 2007.

Counting the Medicine Hat facility, ADM puts its
Canadian wheat mills' combined daily processing
capacity at about 4,000 tonnes. The company makes
flours, bakery mixes, bran, wheat germ and other
ingredients at mills in Calgary, Winnipeg, Montreal and
three Ontario facilities, at Midland, Mississauga, and
Port Colborne.

[rockpile]

They also had a problem with bugs the last 20 or so
years. Shut down regularly for fumigation. Centralized
production and shipping finished product is the norm
in today's economy anyway.

[agstar77]

Exactly. No small mills on every farm.

[dave4441]

Agstar,
Please change your name to chicken little. It will
reduce the time wasted, by new contributors on
this site. Greater efficiency is always a positive
move.

Kind regards,
Dave

[TOM4CWB]

Agstar77,

How about this mill...


"Elie flour mill serves niche North American market
By: Andrea Geary
Posted: 12/14/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0
0 2 REDDIT0 TUMBLR0 27 PRINT E–MAIL
ANDREA GEARY Enlarge Image

Prairie Flour Mills ships commercial-size bags of flour
to bakers across North America.
Shoppers in New York could be getting a little taste of
Elie when they purchase their favourite loaf of organic
bread.

Clayton Manness, general manager of Elie-based
Prairie Flour Mills, said his company ships some of the
organic flour it mills to major American centres such
as New York. That flour is then used in products such
as organic bread for which consumers are willing to
pay top dollar.
Although the competition is fierce among North
American millers, last summer’s severe drought in the
American Midwest resulted in bakers looking further
afield for all-purpose and whole-wheat flour milled
from wheat certified as organically-grown, he said.

"They have a clientele who will pay the higher price,"
Manness said. "Certainly Canadian wheat is accepted."

Production of about three car lots a day is modest for a
flour mill as most commercial mills are much larger in
size and output, but Prairie Flour, located on Elie’s
west side, has managed to hold its own since it opened
in 1998. It’s success has come despite $1.5 million in
damage to the mill caused by the F5 tornado that
struck in June 2007.

Manness said the mill structure was protected by thick
concrete walls, but all of the aluminum-frame
buildings that weren’t filled with grain were completely
crushed and a semi-trailer parked on the property was
catapulted through the air.

He could see the ominous mushroom-shaped cloud
over Elie from the window of the home he was then
constructing in La Salle. Luckily no one was working on
the mill’s site when the tornado hit, Manness said.

"It was the first Friday night in weeks that no one was
packaging flour," he said.
The mill was operational again within two weeks, but
repairs to other buildings took almost a year to
complete.

Manness said the company is proud of the fact it
employs 25 people, some of whom live in Elie while
others commute from the surrounding area and
Winnipeg.

Prairie Flour also acts as a buyer for locally-grown
wheat. Manness said the mill contracts with local
farmers for organic wheat production, and typically
sources most wheat from within a 100-mile radius.

"We try to provide the best wheat pricing for local
producers," he said.

The mill contains equipment used by qualified staff to
evaluate the baking qualities of the wheat it receives.
No final purchases are made until the test results of a
sample are deemed satisfactory.

There are two bagging lines – one for commercial-
sized 20 kilograms bags and another for smaller
retail-sized bags. Manness said they produce flour for
Loblaws and bakers in eastern Canada and the U.S.

Located next to the Trans-Canada Highway, the mill is
well situated for receiving grain and shipping flour in
bags and bulk by truck.

Manness said he’s confident that demand for the mill’s
flour will continue as bread is a staple in most North
Americans’ diets"
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/our-
communities/headliner/Elie-flour-mill-serves-niche-
North-American-market-183055051.html

[Burbert]

Had a piece of toast at a continental
breakfast in a backwoods town in
Albertie, yesterday. Not a big deal,
eh! Butt and its a big butt, the
whipped butter in the little container,
I smeared on the toast, read, wait for
it, now wait for it, Product of China.
WTF, butter from Chine fer Comedian
framers toast. Way ta go Gary RITZ
butter from fn China, came to Comedia in
the Chine's butter pipeline, and now
they want somma our Bitchbubble in
return. WHAT THE F IS WRONG WITH THIS
NATION, WE USED TA BUILD SHIT HERE!!!
Heil Harper, F Ritz........