Réjean Nadeau, CEO of Olymel L.P., who built it into Canada’s largest pork and poultry processing company, passed away Oct. 14 at age 71 at his home in Quebec.
Nadeau headed Olymel since 1996 and oversaw several strategic acquisitions and initiatives, including: acquiring Canada’s largest pork processing plant, in Red Deer, Alberta; merging Olymel with Supraliment, the meats division of Groupe Brochu; creating a business partnership with Westco, a New Brunswick poultry producer, to build a chicken slaughterhouse and butchering plant to serve Canada’s Maritime provinces; and acquisitions including La Fernandière in 2016, Pinty's Delicious Foods and Aliments Triomphe Inc. in 2018, and all of F. Ménard's pork activities in 2020.
“Under his passionate leadership, Olymel grew into the largest processor in the Canadian agri-food industry and became a universally recognized flagship Quebec company,” Olymel’s Paul Beauchamp, first vice-president, said in a statement.
The company is now being headed by Yanick Gervais, senior vice president of operations, who became interim CEO in early October.
