Canada-based Olymel L.P. acquired Pinnacle Farms Inc., a major hog producer headquartered in Canada. Olymel becomes the owner of all inventory, and will now take over management of Pinnacle Farms operations, including its 30 employees.

The assets acquired by Olymel include a quarantine barn, sow barns, nursery barns and finishing barns. In addition, Olymel will lease finishing farms near Medicine Hat, Alberta.

"Olymel is pleased to welcome the employees of Pinnacle Farms into its family. Their experience will be invaluable to Olymel, which receives a boost to its hog production operations in Western Canada. I would like to thank Ron Arnason, president of Pinnacle Farms, and Verus Management, Pinnacle's partner with which we have had business relationships for many years and which established the climate of trust that led to this transaction. This addition in our pork sector should support the target Olymel has set for 2020—to produce more than 1.5 million hogs annually in Western Canada in order to meet the growing demand from its customers," says Réjean Nadeau, president and CEO of Olymel L.P.

This acquisition will bring the number of sows available to Olymel in the West to 52,000.The transaction will also make it possible to deliver 100,000 more hogs annually to the Olymel processing plant in Red Deer, Alberta, whereas these pigs were previously sold as iso-weans and feeders to other buyers in Alberta and the United States. The Olymel pork processing plant in Red Deer has more than 1,540 employees. To turn the additional pigs into market hogs, Olymel will require 30,000 contract finishing spaces through new or existing capacity in Alberta.

"Pinnacle has been supplying finishing hogs to Olymel for more than four years, so our two companies have had time to get to know one another. Verus Management and I are pleased with the conclusion of this relationship and the transaction we are announcing today. We are confident that Pinnacle Farms employees will find a dynamic environment at Olymel where they can maximize their work. This transaction opens the door to the company's further development, and will enable it to serve new markets," says Ron Arnason, director of Pinnacle Farms Inc.