Minute Rice brands leaves Cobourg for Houston

The Kraft plant in Cobourg lost one of its major brands after the company sold it to Ebro Puleva, of Spain, for $280 million.
The operation will move to its Houston-based plant, giving the company a toehold in the Canadian market. Ebro Puelva is one of the world's largest pre-cooked rice manufacturers. It also recently purchased a pasta operation that makes Creamette macaroni products.
For the company it is part of a larger strategy to focus on its biggest brands rather than smaller ones. It is part of a three-year plan Kraft Chief Executive Officer Irene Rosenfeld, who took charge a month ago, is pursuing. The idea is to sell smaller units and increase marketing of bigger brands such as Oscar Mayer meats and Capri Sun beverages. Minute Rice generates about $90 million in revenue, of which $37 million was profit.
Shareholder will get a 10 cent dividend in a one-time payout. Erbo Puleva saw a 93 per cent rise in its share value.
And while that is all good news for the business community, it sucks for Cobourg. With only 375 jobs left at the plant before the announcement, it will hurt. Both the United Food and Commercial Workers local 1230 and the company will not say how many jobs will be lost.
This leaves very little for the Cobourg plant. In talking with a retired employees, it was speculated the line handling Shake And Bake may also move south to a Kraft plant in the United States. A new formula for coating mix means the Cobourg plant would be obsolete.
Cobourg once employed 1,000 people in its heyday in the 1970s. One of the biggest reasons it was kept open during the downsizing of many larger coporations in the 1980s and 1990s was its ability to purchase cheap sugar from Cuba, which would have been illegal in the United States due to trade bans.
Cobourg's plant made a wide range of products from Certo to Kool Aid to breakfast cereals. But, there was always a cloud hanging over the plant as rumours of its closing have circulated for close to 40 years.
But, this could be its death knell. With a three-year strategy to get rid of smaller brands, it does not bode well locally.
This would be another in a long line of major manufacturers who have left the area. Columbus McKinnon, Winchester, General Wire and Cable, H&K Manufacturing. St. Anne's water, Imperial Bake and Serve, Gaines Pet Food, Diversey Water Technologies, Budd Plastics, Matthew Conveyers, Cooper Tool, FP Electronics. Centre Manufacturing Curtis Products
Politicians are powerless in these situations. While they will spend huge sums of money on economic development, it is impossible to stem the tide. Cobourg and Port Hope are quickly becoming bedroom communities, with little more than service sector jobs to offer. The high-paying union jobs of the past which drove the economic engine of the region are quickly disappearing to be replaced by subdivisions and box stores. Toronto refugees are moving here to escape the decline in the large urban centre as they retire. The fastest growing sector in the local population is over 55.
Certainly, these people bring lots of money with them. After selling their high priced homes in Toronto, they have plenty of money to spread around, driving up local home prices and spending lots on all kinds of retail and services.
This only creates part-time jobs without benefits and forces people to leave the community to make a decent living.
It is sad, but it is a story repeated in many communities in rural Ontario. And, there is little reason for politicians, both municipally and provincially, to do anything.