Maple Leaf Foods is preparing to close its Thamesford plant as it shifts operations to a new Sofina facility in Mitchell, Ont.

The small village of Thamesford is grieving as one of its longest and largest employers pulls out of Oxford. More than 400 people are employed at the Thamesford plant.

“It’s all pretty new and pretty fresh, and completely unexpected, really. I couldn’t believe the phone call,” said Margaret Lupton, Mayor of Zorra Township.

Bernia Wheaton, economic development officer with Rural Oxford Economic Development Commission, echoed those thoughts.

“We’re shocked. This comes as a surprise,” she said. “But I’m also encouraged…by the fact that they’re giving 13 months to go through this transition.”

Maple Leaf Foods will be setting up an employee support centre to help workers through the job search process.

“We’re really sensitive to the impact of this job loss on (employees) and on the community,” said public relations director Annemarie Dijkhuis. “This closure is in no way a reflection of their outstanding contributions and commitment.”

The reality is that the Thamesford facility is aging and isn’t fit to keep pace with the growing demand for turkey products, she said.

“This was a very difficult decision…but necessary given the substantial physical limitations at our 80-year-old Thamesford plant,” said Maple Leaf Foods president and CEO Michael McCain in a media release.

Dijkhuis said the capital investment required to overhaul the site would be “significant."

Instead, the plant’s fresh turkey processing will be moved to Sofina’s Mitchell, Ont. facility in phases over the next year. The transition should be complete in early 2018.

“It just isn’t feasible to maintain operations here beyond the next two years. The processing agreement we’ll have in place with Sofina Foods will really give us the opportunity to continue strongly in the turkey industry in Canada,” Dijkhuis said. “It will have the pace that’s required for consumer demand of products like turkey burgers and ground turkey.”

Sofina Foods could not immediately be reached for comment.

The loss of Maple Leaf Foods is a devastating hit for workers in Thamesford, but also for the wider Thamesford community and other local businesses.

“They were just great corporate citizens, so there’s a great history in Thamesford for this company,” Lupton said. “It’s been there forever, before my time…when it was Cold Springs, anything you wanted done in Thamesford – you wanted plants watered or snow shoveled – you just called Cold Springs and somebody came.”

Lupton said she was thinking of employees and their families, but that soon the township would have to turn its energy to bringing new business into the area.

“It’s going to be a big hit for the businesses in Thamesford. I’m sure there’s a lot of worried people right now,” she said.

But the Thamesford plant, which is 140,000 square feet and positioned on 160 acres (including additional buildings like a former hatchery and feed mill), is a “very desirable” location, Wheaton said.

“There’s a lot of industrial-zoned land around it that could be purposed for other uses…it’s very close to the 401 and very close to a strong, loyal workforce,” she said. “Already there’s a shortlist in my mind of companies that may want to take a look at that facility.”

Wheaton also reassured employees that the ROEDC will hit the ground running with transition work.

“We will help the employees transition into jobs that we know are out there,” she said. “We have experience handling this, and while the news is gutting to people, and must be devastating, I know we can work through this.”

Lupton also pointed to other parts of Ontario that have weathered large plant closures.

“Obviously it’s going to have a huge affect on Thamesford,” she said. “But we’re not alone in this.”

mstacey@postmedia.com