Heinz announced on Nov. 14, 2013 that it will close its facility in the town of Leamington in mid 2014. Heinz built its first building in the town on April 15, 1909 and has been a pillar of the community ever since.
The tomato season has begun. H.J. Heinz Company in Leamington received its first shipment on Aug. 9, 1967. (FILES/The Windsor Star)
Spreading the welcome mat to some 15,000 visitors who take advantage of plant tours each year, the H.J. Heinz Company of Canada Limited, Leamington, has a modern, air-conditioned, visitor reception centre, and this group of guides who show visitors through the plant or baby sit with young children while their parents learn the ways and wherefores of modern food processing. From left, Carol Jenner, Johanne Berzaire, Virginia Konduros, Blanche Marshall and Joan Spinks are pictured in this July 8, 1961 file photo. (FILES/The Windsor Star)
Busiest season of the year at the plant of the H.J. Heinz Company of Canada Limited is the tomato season when the plant lives up to its reputation of being the largest tomato processing plant in the world. Baskets of tomatoes sit at the facility in this Sept. 15, 1964 file photo. (FILES/The Windsor Star)
Workers at the H.J. Heinz food-processing plant at Leamington walked off the job at noon on June 27, 1965 to back up their contract demands. Above, the Heinz workers are shown as they streamed out of the gates of the plant. (FILES/The Windsor Star)
The new food processing plant under construction at the H.J. Heinz plant in Leamington is progressing rapidly. Much of the excavation work has been done and the forms for the concrete foundations are being erected. The structure, once complete, will cost approximately $9,000,000. (FILES/The Windsor Star)
This Sept. 3, 1968 aerial picture gives an excellent view of the H.J. Heinz crop canning plant at Leamington which has been constantly expanding over the years. It is one of the industries that has boomed both Leamington and the entire area during the latter years of the half century. Essex County’s famed tomatoes have proven a great spur to Heinz growth over the years, although other area crops are processed. (FILES/The Windsor Star)
An unidentified worker in front of the H.J. Heinz plant in Leamington refused to comment on the mood of the workers in this Aug. 21, 1994 file photo. (FILES/The Windsor Star)
Vines, leaves and rotten tomatoes are picked out of the line at H.J. Heinz in this Aug. 18, 1975 file photo. (Jack Dalgleish/The Windsor Star)
Cleanliness is a 24-hour job at the H.J. Heinz Company’s Leamington plant. As soon as a line stops, the cleaning crews move on the job. Here a workman is shown cleaning one of the big stainless steel kettles in this Sept. 15, 1964 file photo. (FILES/The Windsor Star)
The view of the greatly-expanded H.J. Heinz plant after the boom of the 1920s is pictured in this file photo. The company borrowed form the town of Leamington with guarantees to provide jobs and market for local produce, adebt it continues to replay tenfold. Strikes and worker disputes have been minimal. (FILES/The Windsor Star)
Leamington farmer Peter Mantler has picked his peck of pickles – in their raw form – and truck them to H.J. Heinz in this July 21, 1982 file photo. (FILES/The Windsor Star)
Trucks loaded with tomatoes parked outside the Leamington H.J. Heinz processing plant waited to be processed on Sept. 15, 1948. (FILES/The Windsor Star)
The exterior of the H.J. Heinz Company of Canada Limited in Leamington is pictured in this undated file photo. (FILES/The Windsor Star)
Trucks loaded with tomatoes parked outside the Leamington H.J. Heinz processing plant waited to be processed on Sept. 18, 1956. (FILES/The Windsor Star)
The H.J. Heinz Company in Leamington is pictured a year after it started production in 1910. (FILES/The Windsor Star)
Horse-drawn wagons and tomatoes at the H.J. Heinz Company in Leamington are pictured in this undated file photo. (FILES/The Windsor Star)
