Shur-Gain: A longstanding farm business in St. Marys

Shur-Gain plant #1 and the pet-food plant at 600 James St. S. The plants have been in the same location since 1976 and 1986 respectively. Both plants have employed many people throughout the years.

By Wendy Lamond

“We are not in the business to make money. We are in the business to render a service. If we do that job well, profits are inevitable.”

These words were spoken by the founding force of Canada Packers, J.S. McLean, which is where Shur-Gain’s story began. The history of Shur-Gain began long before it became a permanent structure at 600 James St. S in St. Marys. The company originated in 1937 in Toronto as part of Canada Packers and is one of the oldest suppliers of animal livestock feed to Ontario farmers.

In the ‘30s, as farm-grown-rations content varied, causing slow growth in livestock, more protein and minerals were needed. So, Canada Packers began producing meat, blood and bone meals for farmers. This led to the purchase of land for a research farm near the Toronto airport where testing of products and different feeding methods began.

Over the years, the company has remained extremely research focused. As Toronto was rapidly growing, the research farm was moved to the town of Maple. In 1991, due to more expansion in Maple, the farm was moved once more and now resides on 840 acres in Burford.

How did the feed company come to St. Marys? Well, a great source of knowledge in this department is John Hensel, who was one of the forces behind the move. Hensel was in the business for 44 years and retired in 2000. He started out in the fertilizer business in Chatham and graduated to the feed business and then plant management. Canada Packers built a grain elevator and fertilizer-rending plant in Highgate that Hensel managed for 10 years. At that time, the local Ontario feed manager was looking for expansion and somewhere to build a new feed mill. Between him and Hensel, they worked together to find the best spot.

“We chose St. Marys because, at that time, much of the Ontario feed business was within 100 miles of the town,” Hensel said. “It had a great rail connection and Shur-Gain had a long history with St. Marys and the Great Star Flour Mill which was a dealer at the time.”

This year marks 50 years at their current location.

Bruce Mclean owned the land and had 30 acres to sell. The company was only wanting to buy 15 acres of it but Hensel, with hopes of expanding down the line, convinced them to purchase the whole 30 acres where the pet food plant and the second mill now stand.

Hensel said the Town of St. Marys was great to work with and very welcoming to the business. Eric Taylor was a town manager at the time. Taylor actually wanted the plant to be closer to the town. At that time, there wasn’t a Southvale, Meadowridge or Maxwell street and it was wide open farmland.

Canada Packers chose to build the mill where it stands now due to truck traffic and environmental factors, and to keep it a bit further from the town centre.

The mill manufactured feed for all classes of livestock and about 20 employees were hired. In 1986, the pet-food plant that was operating in Toronto at the time was shut down. With all the equipment sitting there, Hensel said it might as well be put to good use. As Hensel had hoped, expansion at 600 James St. S was going to happen and the pet-food plant was built with product brands like Loblaws onboard.

In 1990, a British Company called Hillsdown Holdings purchased Canada Packers. They also acquired a company called Maple Leaf Mills. The two were merged in 1991 creating Maple Leaf Foods with key ownership being taken over by the McCain Family and the Ontario Teacher’s Pension in 1995.

The Shur-Gain feed business worked with a dealer network. These are independent dealers that had a franchise with Shur-Gain. Shur-Gain would provide basic feed requirements to make feed at a local level. They sell dealers the premixes, and the dealers would then add commodities to make a finished product for their customers.

In 2000, expansion was once again on the horizon with the building of a 200,000-tonne capacity, state-of-the-art feed mill at the James Street location. Hensel said the purpose of the expansion was to show the commitment to the dealer network while keeping up with the ever-growing direct livestock and poultry customers.

When it opened, the new feed mill was completely automated and employed a dozen additional workers, and focused on bulk swine and poultry feed.

Fast forward to 2007 when more change came to the company. An international animal nutrition and feed company called Nutreco purchased Shur-Gain from Maple Leaf Foods.

The company now operates under the name Trouw Nutrition, which is still owned by Nutreco but is a combination of their animal feed businesses across Canada.

Dave Crossan, current general manager of the St. Marys location, has worked for the company for 23 years. After holding four different positions, he has seen many changes over the years. Changes in ownership and the differences in how they want to run the business stands out. The one thing that has always stayed the same is the focus on the customers.

“We always are focused on our customers. Our consumers are more and more reliant on technology like the Robot milking,” Crossan said.

The company has now grown to 265 employees. It has 11 centres of excellence and many smaller dealers, and the poultry feed has the largest tonnage across current-day Shur-Gain.

One thing both Hensel and Crossan shared was the importance of the people and the focus on the clientele. Hensel emphasized the value of personal relationships and the changes he has seen over the years. One big change is the growth in farm operations. Where it was once mostly small farms, at some point, the focus shifted to larger operations that require more specialty feeds. But as agriculture changed, Hensel said the company changed along with it.

According to Crossan, the tariff war has luckily not impacted the company too much.

A company that has been in business for 89 years is rare. It takes many people to make that happen, from management, staff, suppliers and customers, Shur-Gain has obviously done something right.

As a young man, Hensel was working a part-time job and planning on getting his pilot licence when he was injured in a workplace accident. He turned this lemon into lemonade by becoming an integral part of bringing Shur-Gain to St. Marys and enjoyed a 44-year career in the feed business. He said he feels good about bringing it to town and that it is still going.

“I enjoyed my entire career and all the people I met. I feel good about the fact that I brought it to town, that it employed many people over the years and that it is still going,” said Hensel, who is now 90.