The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink AboutThe Huron Expositor, 1973-10-18, Page 10xeOsiToR; SEAFORTit ONT.. OCT, 114 1173 Les, Seiler, owner of Seaforth Creamery, Limited does a little adjusting on one of the machines at the Creamery's newly enlarged facilities. The roll of paper in front of Mr. Se is made up of printed .butter around pounds of butter as they are machine. wrappers which wrap proceSsed through the "rd Modern „)0afrotth creamery AL-. • - fea tureseu.,neW d airy spre00 • 0 WE'VE EXPANDED Seafort Ciffeamery„ild At the right, Betty Heizburger and Barbara Weisenberg are busy packing Elm Grove Dairy Spread. About 40,000 pounds are pack- ed daily with shipments 'going to all parts of Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and British Columbia. The Company, urchases ap- proximately 150, 0,pounds of butter weekly to 'process into the spread. A, staff of eighteen employees are at work daily. Seaforth eaforth Creamery Ltd. (Featuring Elm Grove Dairy Spread) Phone 527-0610 CONGRATULATIONS to Seaforth Creamery Limited We were •pleased to • SUPPLY STEEL AND FABRICATION. HURON CANADIAN FABRICATORS (1968) LTD 527-0310 SEAFORTH- When Les Seiler moved to Seaforth 'in .1969 the old Seaforth Creamery which was once one of the best and mOser'progressive creameries in the province, was closed and neglected. After four short years with Les Seiler as owner, the Seaforth Creamery is again booming," no longer chureing cream to make butter but stretching out butter to make. Elmgrove Dairy Spread. The Dairy Spread which the Seaforth Creamery makes is about 70% butter -with*theadditiqp of a special moisturizing emul- sion. Research into the process was done at the University of. Guelph, but as far as Les Seiler knows, he's the only person who's been successful inproducing con- sistently good dairy spread. "The moisture content of the spread is very high and originally it had a tendency to go moldy", Mr. Seller 'says; At Seaforth Creamery he has discovered a way of preventing this. A creamery. in New Dundee tried making a dairy spread but discontinued. , Another company also made the spread for a time but Les Seller thought dairy . spread could be sold and came to Seaforth in March of 1969, bought the old creamery building, and started producing Elmgrove Spread. The first two, years were tough as Mr. Seller worked at getting the emulsion he adds to butter to make the spread just right. Then the federal government im- posed a tax of 60 a pound, on the dairy spread, cladsing it with imitation dairy products rather than with butter because it con- tained lees than 80%-butter fat. With • Seaforth Creamery's profit margin on their spread much smaller than that of the companies who made imitation whipped topping which contains edible oils, not real dairy pro- ducts, that 60„. tax wiped out most of Seaforth Creamery's pridit. About two years ago after a lot of proddiAg from Mr.Seiler and because of rising food prices and a decline in the amount of butter being made intanada, the tax was removed' when Edgar Benson was Minister of Finance. It, was costing the government more to collect the tax from the Creamery, than the total collec- ted, Mr. Seller says. More money is generated now from his ex- panded business, including the taxes that the business and em- ployees pay, than the 6e a pound tax on dairy spread amount to, •Mr. Seiler paint4s.out. Since then - *,Seaforth Creamery's business • has boomed. They expect to, sell -9 million pounds of dairy spread this year. Starting with an original staff of Mr. and Mrs. Seiler and one employee, the Creamery now has 18 employees who work two shifts keeping' the• creamery equipment f in use from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m., five days a week. - Elragrove Dairy Spread is sold all over Ontario and is , trucked from Seaforth to the major .chain stores' warehquses. The C reamery has its own tractor trailer. The spread is also Shipped to Winnipeg where Burns Packers distribute it through the Prairie provinces and B.C. Be- cause legislation governing dairy products changes from province to province, the creamery doesn't ship east of Ontario. "We haven't really tiled 'to open up a market in the , east though, because we can't keep up with the deinand now", Les Seiler says. He adds that the Creamery hag never had any trouble interesting the chain stores in its product beCause there is more mark up onapound 'of dairy spread than there is on a pound of butter. The huge demand for Elm- grove Dairy Spread led to the recent moderiVtion program at Seaforth Creamery. A proces- sing room where butter and the emulsion is mixed, in huge stain- less steel churns any t resulting spread ' u rmed in pound blocks, and, wrap ed and packed, has been built. on to the existing creamery structure. The well lighted Work room is entirely painted white and employees wear white uniforms and hair nets. Upstairs in the. Creamery, offices and, a common room for employees haVe . been moder- nized. The, old creamery and the old dairy room are now used for storage of the 56 pound blocks,/ of butter which are used to make- Elmgrov'e Spread. ,Mr. Seiler says very. little Canadian butter is used because there .is just not enough being made. The Creamery has used Australian butter and recently got a shipment frbm Ireland. In contrast to the shortage , of Canadian -butter now, Mr. Seiler says that a few years ago four- year,-old butter was being held storagein because of lack of • buyers. The price of butter has - lecreased 7e a pound in the four years tht the new Seaforth Crea- mery has been in' operation. The process' which. turns blocks of , butter, into pounds of dairy spread uses ordinary creamery' puttermaking equip- ment. The emulsion' is mixed in a vat and then. piped into the 'three churns - which to the un- itiated logic like giant laundio- mat clothes dryers. Blocks of butter are added and-the mixture is churned for about 3/4 of an hour. The, soft spread is then ladled into large trays on wheels. These are placed in fnont of three packaging machines 'where an ,employee scoops the spread ;into the machine. These machines form the spread into pound blocks and wrap the,„blocks in paper.. Anodic,' ereployee packs the wrapped pounds of butter into 30 lb. boxes for shipping. • Ninety pounds of dairy spread per minute come out of the three lit packaging machines and the creamery has a daily 'output of about 40,000 pounds , Mr.Seflen • says, The owner • and manager of the Seaforth Crearbery, Les -` -Seiler, has been in the creamery business almost all - his life. "It's all I've ever done really" he says, 4:oh, I went to school for a few years" (including high school in Mitchell), he adds. Born in Monkton, where his father had a cheese factpry, Les serrer remembers herpes'- to deliver to small country stores in the area and being abl4 to walk through his back yard to the red brick Monkton Public School. His father eventually sold hia„, cheese factory to Stacey Bros, and worked in Mitchell for the firm when• the Monkton cheese factOky was closed. Mr. Seller, senior, was recently hbneured by Staceys when he retired after forty years as an employee. Les Seiler continued his association with the dairy in- dustry in Pembroke where he operated a Creamery before eolning to Seaforth in '1969. He those Seaforth as the location for his new business because both he and his wife were familiar with the area, Mrs. Seiler says. Mr's. Seller is the former .• Carolyn Delhi and comes from Brodhagen. The • S elle rs have two children, a girl' aged three and k one year old boy. ' Mr: Seiler •says he doesn't' have much time for hobbies but, that he enjoys hockey and country and western music. Two of his seven sisters are twins and' they 0 used to sing regularly on CKNX radio's ,Barn Dance on Saturday nights. One of the twins is married to Al Cherney the well known fiddler. 'Jack Wright accountant at Seaforth Creamery Limited, takes a minute out froth his duties to smile for the camera in his office. The neW office facilities, at the Creamery are part of the recent enlargemeet and renovation program there. 348=8383 - Mitchell „ SEAFORTH CREAMERY LTD. On the completion of their renovaticins.. We are happy to have supplied concrete for this project.-