Cornwall Ontario – One of the areas most successful agri businesses is closing after nearly 30 years of being in business.
From its mill in Berwick Homestead Organics expanded into the facility in Morrisburg and at their peak employed over 25. 18 people will lose their employment.
Our 25th Anniversary interview with Tom Manley before moving into Morrisburg.
The Manley family also created staff ownership in the business as well as other industry innovation while championing regional foods, and of course Organic foods. They were leaders in expanding an organic footprint in Eastern Ontario.
Touring the Morrisburg plant when they opened.
The facility also had a retail outlet in Morrisburg which starts a liquidation sale on Monday April 9, 2018.
There was hope of truly creating a food hub for the region, but other players never really stepped up in quantity enough to truly use the facility to its fullest.
Mr. Manley gave CFN the following statement for publication.
[bs-quote quote=”We live in a free market competitive environment. May the fittest and nimblest survive. Our strategy was to grow big enough to sustain the onslaught of competition when organic would go mainstream, which we knew it would.
But after 30 years, our size, cost of production, capacity, cost of growth, and debt load could not match the larger players with infrastructure, economies of scale, and deep pockets.
Our mission is to serve and develop organic agriculture. We have succeeded in that mission. The testimonials from customers and friends confirm that.
Organic is now mainstream and it attracts many players.
Maybe we are the victim of our own success.” style=”default” align=”center” color=”#dd3333″ author_name=”Tom Manley” author_job=”Homestead Organics”][/bs-quote]
We will be updating this story Monday and we wish the entire Manley and Homestead Organics the best during a very difficult time.