McCain Foods is halfway through $45 million and $30 million in updates to its Portage la Prairie and Carberry potato processing facilities, respectively.
Upgrades for the Portage la Prairie site started in 2016, and will wrap late next year. The modifications include the addition of a high efficiency potato sorting system, as well as new processing and packaging equipment. According to a news release, in the next year McCain plans to build a new onsite waste water treatment and upgrade the heating, freezing, and refrigeration systems to “improve the facility’s environmental footprint.”
The $30 million investment at the Carberry site is also over the same four-year period. New installations of auto sampling equipment, a blanching system, and improved heating and refrigeration systems for the entire facilities has been completed.
Today, more than 550 employees work at the two facilities in Manitoba.