Olymel Announces Expansion Plans For A New Food Mfg. Plant

What the plant will look like, according to Olymel, in Trois-Rivières – La Fernandière (CNW Group/Olymel l.p.)

BOUCHERVILLE — On Jun. 10, Olymel announced the construction of a major expansion of its La Fernandière plant in Trois-Rivières, a reported investment of $142 million that will allow Olymel to expand. The work will reportedly begin in the next few days, with the start of operations scheduled for spring 2026.

Olymel says it is pursuing several objectives with this project. The plant, which essentially manufactures sausages at the present time, will expand production to include a wider range of pork and poultry products. It will also be converted into an integrated facility where products can be fully processed and packaged on site, thus reducing the transport of raw materials, better aligning processes, and strengthening the company’s productivity. Finally, this new plant will also increase Olymel’s production capacity at a time when the organization is aiming to strengthen the positioning of its products across Canada.

“We’re very proud to announce this major expansion of our Trois-Rivières plant. It’s a big step forward for Olymel. Having this state-of-the-art plant will create new possibilities for expansion and significantly improve our efficiency, which is central to our company’s performance. The project is perfectly aligned with our strategy of capitalizing on the creation of value-added products made with meat of superior quality that’s produced by local farmers,” declared Yanick Gervais, CEO of Olymel.

Olymel says that new systems in the plant will be optimized by artificial intelligence. The connectivity of all the equipment and components will be used to ensure optimized operations management. The technologies include a unique industrial battery system, a continuous cooking line, completely autonomous operations (slicing, packaging, boxing and palletizing), and autonomous vehicles.

Olymel also says that the “new ergonomic equipment will reduce the number of physically demanding tasks for employees, improve employee comfort at operating stations, and free up workers so that they can focus on tasks requiring more precision.”

Olymel released a press release, stating that the “project was designed to optimize energy consumption, with measures that include heat recovery, net–zero water-based cooking, and a heat exchanger to recover heat from wastewater. On-site industrial batteries will be used to store energy and better manage the plant’s power consumption when the grid is at peak demand.”

The ham cooking systems will also utilize closed-circuit water management, which will save on energy and water.

Locally, the plant will generate new economic opportunities, including the creation of approximately 50 direct jobs, according to the food manufacturer.

Olymel also stated that the vast majority of building materials chosen will be made in Quebec. The contractor chosen for the construction work, Construction Bertrand Dionne, is from Drummondville, and the palletizing and boxing services will be designed by Premier Tech, a company from Rivière-du-Loup.

Parallel to this project, and with a view to optimizing its operations, Olymel will permanently close its Anjou facility (140 employees) and its Cap-de-la-Madeleine facility (150 employees) in spring 2026. All personnel will reportedly be offered positions in neighbouring Olymel plants, particularly the newly built facility, which will be located a dozen kilometres from the Cap-de-la-Madeleine plant.