Campbell Soup shuts Toronto factory
About 380 jobs will be lost, production shifts to U.S.
Campbell Soup will close its factory in Toronto within the next18 months and shift production to the U.S., a move that will leave 380 workers here without a job.
The factory, on Birmingham St. in Etobicoke, first opened in1931. It is to close in several stages, according to a statement Wednesday from Campbell’s. Ana Dominguez, president of Campbell’s operations in Canada, said the decision to close the Toronto plant is partially based on the company’s over-production of soup.
“Simply put, we are in a situation where we can produce a lot more soup than we can sell,” she said in an interview.
The Toronto plant is also the smallest and oldest of Campbell’s plants in Canada, she said. The statement from the company about the closure stated it “cannot be retrofit in a way that is competitively viable.”
The decision comes as sales of Campbell soup plummet due to what the company says is a shift in public tastes. Last year, Campbell CEO Denise Morrison told The Associated Press that people have increasingly chosen fresh produce over canned soup.
But Dominguez said Campbell is also trying to diversify the companies it holds, and cited the recent purchase of Pacific Foods last December — a major organic food company — as an example.
“It’s about adapting our business to respond to what consumers are looking for,” she said.
The company statement said the shutdown comes as part of a multiyear plan to cut costs, which it says has been accomplished to the tune of about $345 million.
Three U.S. factories — in Maxton, N.C.; Napoleon, Ohio; and Paris, Texas — will be taking up the slack after Toronto’s factory closes.
Campbell’s said it would offer laidoff Toronto employees job counselling, referral services and other supports. Nonetheless, Dominguez acknowledged that announcing the layoffs was hard.
“It’s been a tough day for us. We just gave some very tough news to very great people here at the company,” she said.
Campbell will be moving its Canadian headquarters, and about 200 jobs, to a new, unspecified location in the GTA over the next several months. The company also said it would be opening a “food innovation centre.”
Dominguez insisted that the company will continue to have a strong presence in Canada. It has about 18,500 employees worldwide.