Leadbetter Foods Expanding

The Packet & Times

Jobs returning to Drinkwater Industrial Park - where they've been disappearing over the years.

An area of town depressed by recent job loss will see an employment injection thanks to a local company that is expanding its operations.

By late fall or early winter, Leadbetter Foods will be up and running at 255 Hughes Rd., the former site of Parker-Hannifin, and will be expanding its workforce by about 60 employees.

Leadbetter, famous for its cowboy steaks, will keep its current plant around the corner on Brammer Drive in the north-end Drinkwater Industrial Park.

Owner Philip Leadbetter said his company will be making the same products, just more of them.

"This facility (on Brammer) is really tight in the summertime for production. We're jam-packed," he said.

Adding to the pressure is the fact Leadbetter Foods started exporting to Japan about six months ago.

When the new facility is open later in the year, it will have the same footprint as Parker-Hannifin, but it will be 10 feet taller.

Leadbetter is excited to get the new plant up and running.

"It's good for Orillia. Orillia's been kind of hit for a loss of jobs in the last few years."

Parker-Hannifin, which made industrial seals for the automotive, aerospace, and oil and gas markets at its Orillia site, closed its local plant in 2009, impacting 70 employees.

In December 2010, Berry Plastics - also on Hughes Road - announced it was consolidating its operations to its Forest Avenue location. That move left some 25 people jobless.

The Leadbetter family has been in business in this area since the 1970s.