It was the shocking news that no one wants to hear, but when Leamington leaned that Heinz was closing the Ketchup plant it did a lot things that softened the blow.
An agricultural economic development conference in Chatham recently discussed lessons from the closure.
Leamington Economic Development Officer Jeanine Lassaline-Berglund says the first thing the town got right was keeping open lines of communication.
"(Mayor John Patterson) reached out to the company directly which was a little unheard of and said 'help me understand what you're prepared to do,' as opposed to other municipalities facing this kind of crisis who might be inclined to bad-mouth the company that's leaving," she says.
Lassaline-Berglund says the town also did the right thing by forming partnerships with regional economic development departments, OMAFRA and the province to ensure there was assistance for employees, and other who were affected.
"In addition to that there was a task force that was put together in order to understand the supply chain and identify the things we could do to stabilize the supply chain," she says.
Lassaline-Berglund says it was reaching out for help from various partners that helped set the stage for what was needed for the new company to move in.
