The current Abattoir in Bruce Mines was purchased by Penokean Hills Farms in the Spring/Summer of 2015. It was originally built in the early 1960’s and has been a fixture for the farming community as the only abattoir in the entire district of Algoma. Local farmers and community members use its services year-round and because of this, it plays a vital role to the health of the local agriculture community. Historically however, there hasn’t been enough livestock being processed to keep it sustainable and the business has gone through a number of financial hardships and owners. With the growth of the Penokean brand, the sustainability of this business has recently changed. While not completely ideal, livestock now needs to be booked for processing months in advance. These growing pains though are being worked through and it has resulted in a commitment for Penokean to build a new state-of-the-art abattoir for the year 2021. The current existing abattoir will also remain in operation under new ownership and for the first time ever, farmers will be able access to multiple processing facilities in Algoma.
The current abattoir now employs nine full-time employees and a number of part-time employees. The new abattoir location will be built this fall-summer 2020/2021 at the old Cel Tire location in Bruce Mines, Ontario (9450 Hwy 17). The new location will be roughly 13,000 square feet, quadrupling the size of the current facility. It will feature a full service retail shop, and be outfitted with equipment for custom smoking, curing and dry-aging meat, enabling Penokean and community farmers to expand into value-added products. We are very excited for this expansion to be completed and look forward to send our customers updates of its progress this year.
