Various headlines tried to describe how the founding hog farmers sold their stake to Asian interests for half a billion dollars. A Manitoba success story started by four hog farmers from southeastern Manitoba with headquarters in the town of La Broqueire, MB east of Steinbach sold for half a billion dollars to interests in Thailand to Charoen Pokphand Foods (CP Foods).

CP Foods is the third largest pig production company in the world.

The three Vielfaure brothers (Paul since deceased, Denis and Claude) and Don Janzen. They built it into the largest pork exporter in Canada, including the purchase and expansion of the hog processing plant in Neepawa.

Claude and Denis, who are in their mid-to-late 50s, and Janzen, 68, continued to own the company, along with smaller shareholders, right until the sale, which is still subject to regulatory approval.

April 22, 2019, HyLife signed a Share Purchase Agreement with Charoen Pokphand Foods Public Company Limited (CPF) to purchase 50.1 percent of the company’s shares with ITOCHU continuing to own 49.9 percent of the remaining shares. The combination of Canada’s leading producer and global exporter of pork products with one of the world’s food conglomerates will build synergy and growth between these two companies. CPF will propel HyLife’s growth into the fast-growing Asian, North American and international markets while proudly showcasing Manitoba’s locally grown and produced high-quality pork.

“This is a win-win for HyLife, CPF and Manitoba’s agricultural industry. Together, our globally established companies will significantly strengthen our market position. Not only do we share similar values, but our strategies also correspond with one another,” said Grant Lazaruk, Chief Executive Officer of HyLife. “Through this agreement, we will build on the success of our growing pork business and brands to our customers globally, including our fresh, chilled pork products to Japan which we proudly grow and process right here in Manitoba.”

Together, HyLife and CPF will leverage their shared corporate values of environmental friendliness and social responsibility while investing in their employees, customers, and communities. Combining forces will propel the growing demand for HyLife’s high-quality pork and enable the company to grow its current 2,500+ employee workforce.

Claude Vielfaure, President of HyLife, said he’s confident about the direction of the company moving forward.

“We have assurances by CFP that they looked at the current management of our company, our employees, our leadership, to continue to grow the company as in the past. They’re investing in what we’ve done, but also with the future in mind, and they want to grow quickly and fast in Manitoba and North America. And so for them, the structure of HyLife, the day to day operations, our culture, our philosophies will stay all the same, and essentially, all we have to do is report to our shareholders what we’re going to be doing.”

Claude said HyLife would continue to with the existing management, staff, and production people to have the ability and the money to make those decisions while running it by the new shareholders.

“That’s right. We did that before, also. We had ITOCHU as a shareholder in our company, so, nothing will change. Our executive senior management group in the company, and, if our shareholders approve, we’ll be able to continue to move forward what we want to do,” said Vielfaure.
The HyLife president said there are government regulatory approvals that the company needs, both in Canada and from different countries around the world, because it’s a Thailand company that does business in many different countries. So, that’s what the three to six months will do, is give time to get all the approvals.
Vielfaure outlined where he sees this new company going, as far as this small Manitoba company that started with a 300 sow farrow-to-finish way back in the ’80s.
“That’s right it’s quite the story. I know for the three brothers, the three Vielfaure brothers and my dad, we bought his farm in 1980, and then got together with Don Janzen in 1994, which really was the start of HyLife, and had 20 employees in ’94, and grew the company to where it is today with 2,500 employees, and exporting meat all over the world,” said Claude. “So, it’s quite exciting, and I think this investment, as you said, there’s tremendous backing by the two shareholders that the company will have, and they want us to grow faster than we ever have before. So, we’re gonna look at all opportunities out there.”

He said the next expansion and purchase could be anywhere. It can be buying production and processing plants in North America; it could be growing their live production sites, it could be increasing their further processed food site, all kinds of different opportunities.
“This new agreement will ensure continued job creation across the province and beyond as well as promote increased demand for our value-added pork.” Vielfaure added, “The Province of Manitoba has been open for business and has empowered our company to attract foreign investment and to enable us to grow our integrated pork company domestically and internationally. We are proud to put Manitoba on the world map and look forward to continuing our excellent relationship with suppliers, partners and communities across Manitoba.”
The transaction is subject to customary conditions and Canadian and international regulatory approvals and could close during the third quarter of 2019. •
— By Harry Siemens