Maple Leaf Bakery Rises to Challenge on Emissions
Every 11 minutes, thousand-pound globs of dough fall from Maple Leaf Bakery’s colossal vats into long steel troughs. Buzzing machines then cut, roll, flour and finally bake the dough into honey-brown loaves, at the rate of about 5,000 an hour.
But this study of sophisticated automation and mass production almost shut down after Maple Leaf’s expansion plans ran afoul of the Ventura County Air Pollution Control District.
It seems that the aroma of baking loaves is an emission as nasty as diesel fumes, and the Oxnard company considered relocating to Nevada when officials were told they’d have to install costly emission-cleansing devices.
“This was a big issue, and we weren’t sure if we could afford to stay here,” said Maple Leaf President Richard Lan. “We knew what we had to do, but a real balance has to be struck, because it has to be cost-efficient.”
Now, though, with the cooperation of the city, the Greater Oxnard Economic Development Corp., the air quality district and Supervisor John Flynn, Maple Leaf is going to stay. In fact, the company is in the midst of an ambitious expansion that will increase its production to more than 1 million loaves a week.
In a ceremony last week, company officials and city leaders celebrated the deal with 135 relieved employees, who would have lost their jobs if the company had left.
Maple Leaf, Canada’s largest food processor with assets topping more than $2.5 billion in countries as far away as Poland, purchased the family-run Pioneer Bakery in September 1997 and quickly added two automated bread lines to run with the two non-automated lines already there.
However, baking bread releases hydrocarbons, specifically alcohols, into the air, and the air quality district quickly stepped in and required the company to comply with its emissions regulations.
But complying meant an intensive capital investment in oxygenating air scrubbers that Maple Leaf executives weren’t initially willing to make, especially at such short notice.
They contacted the city, Supervisor Flynn and the Oxnard Economic Development Corp. to see if some deal could be worked out in which they could comply with the regulations while keeping the operation cost-effective and profitable.
“There were a few meetings where I walked out thinking this deal was a goner,” said EDC Vice President Pat Sweeney. “It just didn’t seem like anything could be put together that would keep them in the city.”
Plant engineer Mike Stalsworth also doubted the process and--after more than a decade working at Pioneer and then for Maple Leaf--started to consider his options.
“For a while, it looked like there were going to be 135 unemployed people,” he said. “I put together my resume and started looking around. . . . I didn’t want to leave, but if they’d have gone, I wouldn’t have had a choice.”
However, a deal was reached that addressed both the short- and long-term issues faced by the company and the Air Pollution Control District.
In the short term, the city cobbled together an agreement in which Maple Leaf can purchase emissions credits from other area companies.
According to the air quality district’s guidelines, a company is allowed to emit a certain tonnage of pollutants into the atmosphere a year. If a company emits less than the limit, it receives credits it can sell to others having a problem meeting emission guidelines.
Although such deals have been engineered before, negotiations can be tricky, because buyer and seller must agree on a price.
In this case, Maple Leaf bought several credits for about $21,000 each.
That bought it time to install the equipment needed to bring its emissions within acceptable standards.
“This is a classic case of business retention,” Sweeney said. “We put together this pretty novel idea, and it worked. . . . It kept them here and gave them the time they needed.”
In the long term, Maple Leaf is funneling about $880,000 into a mammoth piece of machinery that will re-oxygenate its exhaust and cleanse it of pollutants.
With that behind them, company officials are looking at a $5-million expansion and automation project they expect will increase output by about 25%.
Crews are now working on adding 5,000 square feet to the facility, where a new bread line will be located.
The company expects that to be up and running by early September and will hire as many as 15 new employees.
“We hit the nail on the head here,” Lan said. “Partnership with the city was the only way we could have done this, and I can’t express how happy I am that we were able to stay here.”
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