A Montreal-area Humpty Dumpty snack food plant is poised to close permanently this fall after almost 50 years in business.
Winnipeg potato chip maker Old Dutch Foods, which bought Humpty Dumpty Inc. in 2006, said in a release Tuesday its plant and warehouse operations at Lachine have “reached the end of (their) economic life” and aren’t feasible to renovate.
Humpty Dumpty built the plant in 1964 and it’s been in “continuous operation” making snack foods since then, the company said.
It’s also not feasible for the company to set up a “new generation snack facility” in the area, Old Dutch said, thus its Quebec market will now be supplied through the company’s other Canadian plants.
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Old Dutch has Canadian processing plants at Winnipeg, Calgary and Airdrie, Alta. as well as a recently-expanded potato chip plant at Hartland, N.B., northwest of Fredericton. The company also operates U.S. plants at Minneapolis and Roseville, Minn.
The Lachine closure, scheduled for Sept. 27, will affect 216 plant employees who are currently either active or on temporary layoff, Old Dutch said.
Sales operations “will continue normally” and customers aren’t expected to see any “supply disruption” during the transition.
Relative to the Old Dutch brand, whose following is largely in Western Canada, Humpty Dumpty has a significant presence in the East, with products such as potato sticks, cheese sticks, corn chips, party mix, Ringolos, Cruncheez and ChedACorn.
