August 22, 2015

Ardent Mills has acquired Mondelez International’s flour mill located in Mississauga, Ontario.

The facility, located just outside of Toronto and about 90 miles from Buffalo, New York, is capable of producing 8,500 cwts of flour milled from soft wheat and hard wheat; and has 1,900,00 bus. of wheat storage capacity.

“Acquiring this mill is consistent with our strategies for growth and our desire to help our customers win,” said Dan Dye, chief executive officer of Ardent. “They have a strong team in place at the mill, with a passion for the craft of milling. We are excited about this mill’s future, and we’re confident we can leverage our innovation and supply chain capabilities, after the transaction closes.”

Ardent’s acquisition of the Ontario-based facility is the first since the company established itself in May 2014 as a joint venture that encompassed the flour milling operations of Cargill, ConAgra Foods, Inc. and CHS, Inc.

Not only does the mill supply flour to Mondelez Canada, it also supplies flour to baking plants and different food manufacturing customers. It’s also expected the staff of about 30 will join Ardent Mills once the deal is made official.

“The mill has been modernized over time — Mondelez has done an excellent job of taking care of it,” said Bill Stoufer, chief operating officer, Ardent Mills when speaking with Milling & Baking News. “There is a great team working at the facility, and we’re confident it will be an excellent cultural fit. When we looked at the Ardent Mills geographic footprint in Canada, we concluded we were missing out on the opportunity to expand our business in Ontario because we did not have a mill there. It is a great strategic fit, with such a large percentage of Canada’s population in the Toronto area.”

With the acquisition, Ardent Mills now has four milling operations in Saskatoon, Montreal, Burlington and Brampton. It is the largest flour milling company in the United States and third largest in Canada.