Big wheel buys Temiskaming Thornloe cheese maker.

• Author: Ross, Ian
• Position: Gencor

Thornloe Cheese, a popular Highway 11 attraction is under new farmer-directed ownership with a fresher direction.

Gencor, a Guelph-based livestock genetics company, acquired the award-winning commercial cheese producer from dairy giant Parmalat Canada.

The long-awaited deal was finalized in late January No financial details of the transaction were disclosed.

The popular New Liskeard roadside stop was threatened with closure last summer and the loss of 19 jobs after Parmalat announced the 60-year-old facility no longer fit into their long-range plans.

The shop will now be run by Gencor Foods Inc., a subsidiary of the farmer-owned company, and will operate under the banner of Gencor Foods Thornloe Inc.

Gencor Foods president Yves Gauthier says customers, suppliers and distributors can expect to see a re-introduction of more cheese categories that were discontinued years ago with bigger plans in the works to expand their distribution into more national ethnically-oriented markets.

"The most important thing is that our distributors see no change in the quality of the product," says Gauthier. "Once we get that well established we're going to move into our marketing plan."

There's also tentative plans to enhance the retail storefront by introducing a coffee brand for a cafe setting.

"We had to do so many things so quick to get this plant going," says Gauthier, who's also an Earlton dairy farmer and serves as the parent company's Northern Ontario director.

Gauthier became involved in the struggle to keep the shop open last summer soon after Parmalat's July 5 announcement.

The dairy mega-giant said the area's milk quota was being "consolidated" into other Parmalat facilities.

But Parmalat was receptive to selling the property the building and to help "ease the transition" with employees.

Gencor became formally involved in the acquisition process in mid-December.

The company, with offices in Guelph and Woodstock, is a leader in bovine genetics with 6,000 members on farms across Ontario.

Gauthier says Gencor is always interested in expanding assets that places more control of food production into the hands of farmers.

During the mad cow crisis in 2003, Gencor Foods purchased the closed MGI meat packers plant in Kitchener to handle the backlog of beef and dairy cull cattle in Ontario that needed to be slaughtered when the U.S. border was closed to Canadian exports.

Gauthier says Gencor members wanted their board to expand on the dairy side as well.

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