Almond and other alternatives to dairy milk products are displayed for sale at a grocery store in Aylmer, Que., on Thursday, May 26, 2022. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency says the recent Listeria contamination of several plant-based milks happened in a Pickering, Ontario facility called Joriki Inc. A spokesperson for Toronto-based Joriki said the closures meant the majority of Joriki’s employees were laid off when it shuttered its two plants in Ontario, one in B.C.
and one in Pennsylvania owned by a subsidiary. The spokesperson said that as the company is pursuing creditor protection, it doesn’t have the finances to maintain operations and does not plan to reopen the plants.Its filings listed more than 100 organizations that Joriki owes over $200 million, including $775,000 in unpaid wages. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said the company’s Pickering, Ont. plant was the source of a listeria outbreak that led to three deaths between August 2023 and July 2024. The outbreak infected at least 20 people in Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and Alberta.Several plant-based milks including almond, oat, and coconut under the Silk and Great Value brands that Joriki packaged were part of the recall. (Great Value is Walmart Canada’s store brand.)A spokesperson for Danone Canada, which makes Silk products, previously said that production from the affected facility was moved elsewhere in its North American network.Termination notices obtained by The Canadian Press show hundreds of workers were laid off between the four plants. Employees were told they would receive outstanding wages earned and accrued.The spokesperson said the company has faced significant challenges after the product recall, including loss of business and liquidity issues. The termination notices said that Joriki has been trying to sell some or all of its business, and one of them said that a potential buyer had pulled out of a planned transaction on Dec. 23.Proposal trustee Alvarez & Marsal Canada said in the letter to creditors that Joriki is not bankrupt but hopes to “create a stabilized environment” and give the company “breathing room while it evaluates its strategic alternatives.” Joriki, Danone and Walmart Canada are also named in a class-action lawsuit launched in Quebec over the listeria outbreak which has not been certified. The Joriki spokesperson said the company is exploring potential transactions that would see its facilities acquired, and which could lead to the purchasers offering former employees new jobs. They said the company made every reasonable effort to reach an outcome that would have protected jobs. Rajendran Arumugam, who worked at Joriki’s Scarborough branch for more than three years, says he was getting ready for New Year’s Eve when the termination notice landed in his inbox. “I was mentally very depressed and I don’t have any mood to celebrate the new year when we get this news,” Arumugam said.
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