Same family also operates a massive tilapia fish farm
By
Mark Schadenberg
If
London’s east end was part of a Monopoly game, you could say two Oxford
companies now own Marvin Gardens and Ventnor Avenue, but renovations must take
place before either owner can accumulate wealth and rent from these
acquisitions.
It’s
been well documented here and elsewhere that Sierra Construction purchased the
shuttered McCormick’s – Beta Brands cookie factory on Dundas Street a couple
years ago.
Now,
EE McLaughlin has bought the former Kellogg’s factory practically across the
street.
McLaughlin
has evolved the company entrepreneurship in 3 main directions – warehousing,
logistics (transport trucks) and a giant fish farm (correct; see link below. Note: The fish are
not giants, but the facility is). Diversification is important and this appears
to be quite an example of polar opposites.
All
small businesses require storage space and sometime you can take a very large
commercial building and divide it so 4 or more companies can exist and succeed
in tranquillity.
McLaughlin’s
purchase of the old Kellogg’s factory was announced via the media on Dec. 15 –
great news for the Forest City in the closing days of 2016. The former cereal
making and packaging facility is more than 90,000 square feet, according to a
story in the London Free Press.
EE
McLaughlin already owns the former Electro-Diesel factory in London and other
holdings in that city, and boasts warehousing facilities in Woodstock, Delhi, Tillsonburg,
West Lorne, and Simcoe. The company website of www.eemclaughlin.com tells the family story and lists more of their holdings as naturally they seek additional tenants.
It
was international news the day the last Frosted Flakes cereal box was
discovered by a family in Timmins in March of 2015, so naturally the sale of
the building is important news especially since the Kellogg’s complex of 9
buildings had already been sold previously to a different company, but was made
available once again. It was announced just before Christmas in 2013 that the
Kellogg plant would cease operations in London.
By
noting the timeline, it is quite safe to assume that the McLaughlin purchase
features a structure which is quite modern in mechanicals and condition of
construction.
Two photos from London Free Press
The
McLaughlin company website notes the family enterprises truly began in 1979
with a cheese store to accompany a family farm.
It
was in 1984 that they purchased the former Firestone textile factory at the
corner of Ingersoll Avenue and Oxford Street in Woodstock. I grew up about 2
city blocks from that building which in my childhood (1970-80) was notorious
for spewing out fumes both from its Oxford Street windows at ground level and a
tall stack. I would be the first to say any type of warehousing operation,
including a Standard Tube employee credit union previously on site, was far superior use-of-space
then the Firestone plant across the street from a K-8 school (Today, it’s Holy
Family French immersion) and houses.
The
business-minded family continued to cement themselves in the Oxford County
business community. The McLaughlin brothers have also concentrated on the
extraction of aggregates and production of concrete.
The
website of www.eemclaughlin.com notes the company now has more than 6
million square feet for warehousing, and I’m guessing that does not include the
purchase of Kellogg.
I
would be the first person in line who would describe this Kellogg purchase as
great news as all of its buildings can be re-purposed in a positive manner.
In
Woodstock, we have seen one Harvey Woods plant converted to apartments and
another has become an antique market. Plus, a previous sock factory under the
Paquette banner, was gutted and renovated also into apartments. Closed schools
have become medical buildings or condominiums, while Sierra Construction has
been applauded by myself and others for utilizing the shell of two buildings on
the former ORC property for a recreation centre for Sally Creek and also a
bistro / golf course clubhouse. I would believe dozens of examples exist in
London as well.
GOING
FISHING
The McLaughlin tilapia farm is called Sand Plains Aqua Culture and is located west of
Tillsonburg, and is about 70,000 square feet. The 3 McLaughlin (Ewart, Murray
and Ed) brothers’ farm breeds and grows all of its product, and must (and do)
track breeding closely to avoid too many close families in genetics. The
interesting part about the 3-year-old Rogers TV video (link) attached here (TV show: Innovation) is that the person overlooking much of the operation resides on the site, which is also important if there is ever a power issue,
but the location does have an intriguing set of back-up power sources. From
thousands of adult fish to a hatchery, brood stock and a nursery, Sand Plains
is an impressive operation if you watch the video with host Michael Harding of Innovation.
Ewart McLaughlin (left) and Michael Harding
Did
you know tilapia fish begins with eggs in their mom’s mouth? Selective breeding
is part of the process, including aquariums where non-related fish live
one-on-one for that purpose. The staff at Sand Plains know which fish are in
which aquarium through computer tracking. The original McLaughlin fish were
imported from Egypt’s Nile River.
Sand
Plains sells both live and frozen fish, and their product is available in
Oxford stores and beyond. The video notes that it takes about 10 months to grow
one fish from spawning to shipping.
The
‘factory’ is very innovative in that they recycle their own water. If you
consider yourself an amateur mechanical engineer, the system of oxygen and
water maintenance is impressive to learn about. Computerized feeding systems,
water conveyor belts which move the larger fish into a special holding tank for
the market, and selective breeding are all remarkable practices considering
they had only 8 employees at the time of the show taping in 2013.
Ewart
McLaughlin said in the show that the investment in the production facility is
about $10 million, and now produces about 500,000 kg of fish per year.
LINKS:
Rogers TV show Innovation (2013) as produced by John Payne:
Beta Links (Each story contains links to London Free Press stories as
well):
All items on this blog site are compiled by:
Mark Schadenberg, Sales
Representative
Senior Real Estate Specialist
(SRES designation)
Royal LePage Triland Realty
Independently Owned & Operated, Brokerage
757 Dundas St, Woodstock
(519) 537-1553, cell or text
Email: mschadenberg@rogers.com
Twitter: markroyallepage
Facebook: Mark Schadenberg, Royal LePage Triland
Discussion . . . Direction . . . Determination . . .
Destination
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