Grand opening held for state-of-the art HyLife headquarters in Steinbach

The ribbon was cut Thursday, officially opening the new state-of-the-art HyLife headquarters in Steinbach.

The building is located in the Millbrook Market development. It is a four-storey structure with 47,462 square feet of space. There are 175 employees working in the new space. The building is also home to a 2,000-square-foot fitness centre for employees and their families to use. 

"This is more than a building, it is a new home and anchor for HyLife that we hope will become a community landmark," says Grant Lazaruk, President and Chief Executive Officer. "After several years envisioning, planning and building, we look forward to settling in and collaborating in this world-class space."

Prior to the move, HyLife was headquartered in La Broquerie, but had too many employees to all be located under one roof. Lazaruk says they eventually came to the conclusion that they needed to centralize everyone to one location. He notes they were committed to staying in the southeast and in the end decided on a move to Steinbach. 

"Steinbach being a larger centre, providing more opportunities for employees with respect to some of the things they may want to do before work, after work or during work," explains Lazaruk. 

Plus, he says for their employees who live in Winnipeg, commuting to Steinbach feels a lot closer than driving to La Broquerie each day for work. Lazaruk says Steinbach is also a very diverse city for their very diverse company which includes employees who grew up in Japan, Thailand, the Philippines and Costa Rica. 

"I think this is a location where it's easy to find a place to live as well," he adds. "And so, moving here is about our company and the benefits it brings to our company, but most importantly our employees."

Lazaruk says one thing that pleases him most about their new home is how many windows it contains. There is more than 23,000 square feet of glass. That is more than four times the area of a basketball court. Lazaruk says that was one of the requests they heard continuously at their old location, was a desire from employees to work in front of a window. 

"What I'm proud about, is every employee in this building has a window," says Lazaruk. "It creates this workplace environment that is light and with light brings energy and a positive workforce."

According to Kevin Barkman, Senior Vice President of Infrastructure and Environmental Affairs, local businesses played a big part in constructing their new building. In fact, he says more than two-thirds of the tradespeople that built their new headquarters are directly from the Steinbach area.

Photo credit: HyLife

Steinbach Mayor Earl Funk was on hand Thursday to celebrate the grand opening. Funk says he is confident that this move will give the city an economic boost.

"We anticipate that the opening of this state-of-the-art facility will influence other large businesses to move here, further solidifying Steinbach as a centre for high-tech agribusiness opportunities," says Funk. "With HyLife's operations having the international scope, we look forward to this opening bringing Steinbach recognition, not only at the local table but at the global table as well."

Thursday's grand opening came two and a half months after HyLife announced it was laying off 87 employees. The company pointed to challenges in the industry such as inflation, rising production costs, including feed and fuel, the uncertainty in hog and pork markets and foreign exchange rates. 

Lazaruk, who has been with HyLife for nearly 25 years, says this is not their first experience navigating through tough times. However, he notes the difference is that this downturn lasted longer. He notes normally the cycle runs anywhere from 12 to 18 months, but this time it lasted about 24 months. Lazaruk says though that they have turned the corner. He notes feed costs are getting in line and have reached a point where things look very, very promising for HyLife and the industry. 

"The industry will continue to prosper," notes Lazaruk. "We're going to continue to eat meat protein and pork is going to be a big part of our diet and so that to me spells success and we'll continue to be successful."

Founded in 1994, HyLife operates feed, barn, fleet and pork plant facilities in Canada, employing 2,500 individuals and producing 3.4 million hogs annually.

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