Packing things in
Mitchell's Gourmet Foods building had long history
By Peter Wilson, The StarPhoenix
January 11, 2010 7:25 AM
It has been a landmark on 11th Street for 70 years, but the former Mitchell's Gourmet Foods complex is being reduced to a pile of rubble.
Stu Irvine gazes through the frigid air toward the demolition crews and the disintegrating structures. It's a sad spectacle, but for a brief time Irvine distances himself from the sight of falling brick and tearing metal to travel back in time.
He's thinking back to a summer 44 years ago, and the first day he started work in the company's ham canning department. Stuffing four-by-six-inch hams into casings is not the most glamorous of jobs, but Irvine enjoyed the work, along with the paycheque. Not that this high-energy, motivated fellow would be squeezing hams into tin cans for long.
In fact, Irvine became an example of how a young hopeful starting on the shop floor can work his way to the loftiest position in the executive suite. During the next four decades he rose in the company to hold the positions of divisional superintendent, plant superintendent and plant manager. In 1997, Irvine was promoted to vice-president of manufacturing.
When company president Fred Mitchell passed away in 1998, the board of directors promoted Irvine to president and chief operating officer. In 2003, when the company was purchased by Maple Leaf Foods, Irvine became vice-president of manufacturing for the western region, a position he held until he retired in October 2006. It was a long and enjoyable career, says Irvine, who now runs his own Saskatoon-based company, SJ Irvine Fine Foods.
Back when Irvine first signed on at the 11th Street plant, the company was called Intercontinental Packers and had already built up an envious entrepreneurial history. Much of that success was owed to Fred Mendel, a man who had left behind a very successful meat-packing business in Europe to relocate first to Australia, and then Canada a few years later.
In escaping the Nazis, Mendel chose Saskatoon as his new home and the North American base for his meat packing business.
Mendel purchased a former automobile manufacturing building on 11th Street, named his company Intercontinental Packers and lived to see it grow to become the largest value-added pork processor under one roof in Canada.
Mendel's products quickly built such a reputation for quality that by the early 1950s, he was making the first of numerous acquisitions and expansions.
But his life was not all about work. He loved art, surrounding himself and his employees with many valuable artworks. He was the powerhouse behind the establishment of the Mendel Art Gallery, where many of his original art pieces were placed on display. Another Mendel legacy, the William Perehudoff murals that Mendel commissioned in 1953 for the walls of the executive offices, were rescued from the building before demolition.
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It was into this heady atmosphere in 1965 that Irvine, fresh out of Tech Collegiate, began his career as a labourer at the plant. Within five years, he had been promoted to foreman. His continuing ascent up the company's corporate ladder matched the rising star that was Intercon.
The company's success was due to a strong, experienced management group and very loyal hard-working employees, Irvine says. It was a family business and the employees felt they were part of this family, he adds.
"Both Fred Mendel and Fred Mitchell were highly respected by their employees, even though they were in the union. They supported Fred Mitchell when the company was going through tough times."
Some of Irvine's fondest memories are of the camaraderie and teamwork amongst the staff at the growing plant.
The mutual respect went a long way in resolving issues, and as a result, the company never had a job action at the facility, he said.
Maurice Werezak, president of United Food and Commercial Workers local 248P, shares Irvine's viewpoint.
"People cared. The employees were a dedicated group and had a good work ethic, and Stu Irvine had to be one of the best managers you could work with," he said.
Werezak began his career at the Intercon in 1977, working on the company's shipping dock. Later he would get his electrical papers, but he always maintained strong relationships with his union, an affiliation that did not prevent him gaining a deep respect for the company's owners.
"Mr. Mendel was a very wise man. He wanted us to be completely self-sufficient, and even had plans in place to develop our own tannery operation on site."
Werezak is sad to see the demolition bring final closure to the plant. The plant's death has been a drawn-out process, he says. When the kill floor closed a couple of years ago, Werezak says many employees and former staff members came to take a last look. It was a scene of hugs and tears, he recalls.
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It was 1975, and Marv LeNabat was a young fellow saving money to get married and working hard at his job at Intercon, cutting brisket on the beef kill floor.
In the middle of his work, he had a visitor. It was Fred Mendel.
"He was a nice man, and stopped and chatted to me about my job. He knew a lot more about beef than I did," LeNabat said.
"At the time I had no idea who he was. When I found out, I was happy my mother had taught me to be respectful to older people."
LeNabat worked for the company from 1975 to 2008 before leaving to pursue new career opportunities. He was another of Intercontinental's employees who worked his way into management, eventually becoming the company's human resources manager, a very busy position within the rapidly expanding organization.
The company was a job machine, said LeNabat, creating a huge benefit for the city's employment statistics.
He has praise for Fred Mitchell, Mendel's grandson and the president of the company for 22 years, who he says was a man of great vision.
In 1997 it was Mitchell who helped drag the company back from the edge of bankruptcy, LeNabat says.
"He got us all pulling the wagon in the same direction. We were a team that knew we'd either all win or all lose. I had the privilege of working in that environment."
That teamwork paid off. Through the late 1980s and 1990s the company payroll swelled to about 1,500. The 11th Street plant was a hive of activity with about 850,000 hogs and 150,000 head of cattle slaughtered annually.
Much of the pork and beef production had an important value-added component, with the company's excess pork production finding a ready export market in the U.S. and Japan.
Processing lines hummed along. Sliced side bacon, bone-in and boneless ham and sliced luncheon meats, along with a variety of smoked sausages and wieners, made their way from the Saskatoon plant to dining tables around the world. The company's line of fresh and frozen sausage proved perennially popular with food service and retail customers.
Shortly before Mitchell's death in 1998, the company took on its new name, Mitchell's Gourmet Foods.
In 1999, an alliance was formed with Schneider Foods, and in 2003 Mitchell's was sold to Schneider. In 2004, Schneider was acquired by Maple Leaf Foods, with Mitchell's continuing operations as an independent operating company of Schneider Foods.
In 2006, Maple Leaf Foods announced it would be closing down the Saskatoon plant during the next three years.
Maple Leaf still has a significant presence in Saskatoon, with as many as 400 employees working at either its multimillion-dollar processing plant or its midwest distribution centre, which handles company products from plants across Canada.
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Out at the demolition site on 11th Street, Stu Irvine braves the cold a while longer, watching familiar shapes disappear. Destined to become part of the city's Circle Drive South project, the site's commercial history will soon be only a memory. Time is quickly erasing the last landmark of the Mendel family, he says.
Irvine worries that the legacy of a family that gave so much to Saskatoon through generous donations, as well as it being Saskatchewan's largest private employer, will be forgotten. The Mendel Art Gallery is moving, and the name will change. Fred Mitchell Memorial Park no longer exists, he adds.
"I don't believe any politician would argue (with the idea) that the province and the city are better off because of the Mendel family. I'm concerned that this heritage is going to disappear forever," he says, as the broken bricks and rubble of his old workplace pile steadily higher.
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