HENSALL — The village of Hensall will soon see more new construction as Parrish and Heimbecker (P&H) announced last week it plans to build a new, state-of-the-art, dry edible bean processing facility in Hensall.
The multi-million dollar food-grade facility will “incorporate progressive design elements that protect product integrity while simultaneously minimizing energy consumption,” the company said in a press statement.
Facility design has been modeled to exceed typical food quality standards through HACCP certification and rigid product identity preservation, thereby offering traceability from “farm to plate,” the company said.
Eastern Canadian grain operations director Robert Bryson said, “We are very pleased to be redeveloping and investing in Hensall to establish a world-class bean processing facility. From a design aspect, this modern facility has thoroughly addressed the most stringent requirements from sustainability, efficiency and food safety perspectives.”
The processing facility will be also be situated such that is able to exploit supply chain advantages, delivering freight savings to the end use customer.
Bryson commented “a footprint in Hensall enables our customers to exploit transportation opportunities as they arise. P&H’s seamless and dynamic connection between rail and truck modes, coupled with the ability to ship in both packaged and bulk product forms, allows the eastern Canadian marine gateway ports to be used to their fullest potential.”
Bryson also spoke to these competitive advantages from an export perspective.
“In today’s market, superior food safety and product quality are the basic requirements of our customers. A high degree of automation allows us to operate more efficiently, with monitoring processes that will reduce errors, saving our customers time and money.
“Innovation that can green their supply chains and deliver cost-savings is our competitive advantage,” he said.
P&H already has an elevator and crop input supply facility in Hensall, and that facility already specializes in the contracting and processing of dry beans, including Navy Beans, Cranberry Beans, Black Turtle Beans and Kidney Beans.
The company also has elevators and crop input retail operations in Centralia, Glencoe, Kerwood, Kirkton, Mount Elgin, Walton, Amberley and Kincardine, as well as Eastern Ontario, Quebec and Western Canada. It has marine terminals in Hamilton and Owen Sound, as well as an inland terminal in Breslau. Its corporate head office is in Winnipeg, with an Ontario corporate base in Mississauga.
In 2009, Parrish and Heimbecker celebrated its 100th year in business.
