By Adam Brazeau
CORNWALL, Ontario – A food ingredient manufacturer in Cornwall will be closing its doors as early as March 15, leaving most if not all of its staff out of work.
Employees of the Sensient Biopharma and Savory Flavors facility on Wallrich Avenue were notified Tuesday of the move.
“Earlier this year, Sensient Technologies Corporation announced a restructuring plan to streamline the global operation of its Flavors & Fragrances business and allow for more efficient capital allocation toward strategic activities,” said Sensient’s Senior Vice President Stephen Rolfs in a media statement.
In telephone interview with Seaway News, Rolfs confirmed the facility employs approxiamately 50 people.
Sensient stated it’s in the process of working with employees on their transition as the company winds down production.
“Today, we’re currently in the process of meeting with employees and their union representatives in order to explain their situation and the support we will be providing,” said Rolfs.
He added that the decision to shut down the plant had nothing to do with the performance level of its staff.
“What we found was we have a number of plants around the world that do similiar products – and the plant also requires investment,” said Rolfs. “We’ve determined that we need to look at ways to make our operations more efficient, and where possible consolidate some of the plants that produce the same types of products. In many cases we have existing capacity within our global manufacturing system to absorb some of this production – and that was the case here.”
Sensient is headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Rolfs explained that the decision to close Sensient Flavors is not a reflection on the plant or its staff – a comment that will come as cold comfort to the 50-plus employees soon to be looking for work.
“They were a hard-working workforce and it was a difficult decision that had more to do with our globla capabalities and trying to match the market demand for our existing manufacturing facilities,” he said.
