Flashbacks tours the 140-year iconic legacy of E.D. Smith
WINONA - Llewellyn Smith used to call his famous family business the house that jam built."
That was the name of the book he wrote about E.D. Smith in 1995, seven years before he sold the company to Imperial Capital Corp., a Toronto-based investment firm. In 2007, the business was sold again to U.S.-based Treehouse Foods Inc.
And now the house of E.D. Smith has yet another owner. Although not many people - beyond the employees who work there - seem to know about it.
In October, American private equity firm Investindustrial acquired E.D. Smith, as part of a $950-million deal for a large part of Treehouse food production assets. The divested business, based in Oak Brook, Illinois, has been renamed Winland Foods.
And it begs the question: Is the new boss planning to continue making E.D. Smith brand jam and condiments in Winona at the big plant on Highway 8 next to the stone cottage where Ernest D'Israeli Smith started it all in 1882?
Under Treehouse ownership, E.D. Smith product plants in Seaforth and Cambridge Ontario were shuttered leaving the Winona operation to handle nearly all production for Canada.
And the name of E.D. Smith had been declining in profile at the Winona facility. Most notably, the big iconic painted sign on the outside wall of the plant that used to say E.D. Smith - Quality Foods since 1882" was painted over into a Treehouse logo. (But there are other smaller signs that feature the E.D. Smith brand.)
I reached out to Eric Beringause, the CEO of Winland.
Yes, we acquired E.D. Smith as part of the Winland Foods acquisition," he wrote me in an email. E.D. Smith is a great company, with a long history in Canada and has great people and wonderful products.
We look forward to a wonderful future together. We have no plans to change any of the production in Winona."
So, how about a tour of the place? I asked. I was curious to see what 140 years of history looks like.
Beringause graciously agreed and directed me to Wayne Yardley, the director of manufacturing at the Winona plant.
The day Spectator photographer Cathie Coward and I arrived at the plant, it was cold and rainy with big tractor-trailers splashing through deep puddles in the parking lot. At the security office, we were given white coats, hair nets and a beard net for me to wear. They gave us safety glasses and slip-on safety toe covers to put over our shoes. We needed to remove watches and all jewelry. They asked if we had any COVID symptoms.
They didn't want anything ending up in their food products that doesn't belong there.
When we opened the door into the main production area, we were enveloped in the clatter of countless machines. Conveyer belts whisked around jars of Triple Fruit jam (which I'm told is the most popular E.D. Smith product.) More than 200 bottles are produced a minute," said Yardley. You wonder where it all goes."
The jars were mechanically led into a packing machine that placed them in neat plastic-covered boxes of 12, ready for shipping. They call it the fruit line." It was all very modern and clean.
But there was a lot more than jam being made in that place. As we walked further into the plant, my nose became certain of that.
I picked up whiffs of onion, garlic and curry. They were making sauces for the food service industry on what they called the Major Line." That smelled especially good. Private-label salsa and pasta sauce products were on the Multiline." And then ketchup and syrups were on the Plastic Line." There were big kettles where they cooked things, and a lab for quality control.
In all, 427 mostly private-label products are made at the plant, folded into more than six million cases per year. Only six per cent of the output is under an E.D. Smith label.
It's a much different place than in the days of Ernest D'Israeli Smith who began as a fruit farmer and distributor and found himself with more fruit than he could possibly sell.
He decided to make jam with it, which was an adventurous idea because English makers had the market sewn up in Canada. But E.D. Smith found success. His product was good, and people liked it.
Through generations of Smiths after him, the company acquired the Canadian rights to products such as H.P. Sauce Ltd. and Lea & Perrins Ltd. sauce from Britain. Garden Cocktail was a huge success. And E.D. Smith became a major manufacturer of President's Choice sauces for Loblaws.
But by 2001, the company was at a crossroads. The food industry was consolidating, and E.D. Smith found itself competing with multinational giants.
Llewellyn Smith, who was CEO at the time, could not be reached for comment for this column. But in 2002 he told me, Obviously, you arrive at a decision of this nature after a lot of time ... a bunch of things were going on. I have three children who have clearly expressed a lack of interest (in the business).
I will soon be 50 years of age. The company needed to make the next step forward in its future. It required capital, a heavy commitment. And I felt at this age and stage in my life, perhaps it was time to step aside, sell the business, get some fresh blood in there."
Today there are 233 hourly workers and 40 salaried employees at the plant that is at another critical phase in its history, not only with a new owner but also with COVID, spiralling inflation, supply chain disruptions and worker shortages. There are currently 10 plant job openings and four jobs for skilled workers such as a millwright and electrician.
And while the new owner is optimistic and says things will stay the same at the plant, no one really knows what the future holds.
Bob Sorrell, 67, a retired E.D. Smith production millwright, says he is afraid E.D. Smith is going to disappear completely, and that it will just become a manufacturing plant."
And that would be sad to see. It's a huge part of local history and Canadian history."
Three owners beyond family ownership, E.D. Smith is a long way from its roots.
Sorrell says it's a bit like Winona, the community where E.D. Smith has operated all those years.
It got taken over by Stoney Creek and then by the City of Hamilton with amalgamation.
It became a small part of something a lot bigger, just like E.D. Smith.
And it's a challenge to maintain your identity when that happens.