I can't see this being a knee-jerk reaction from Heinz in lieu of what's doing with McDonald's. This would stem from when Buffett took over, they said they were going to rationalize production and maximize efficiency. Because of our strong dollar and the 'buy American' attitude that exists south of the border, when that happens you know the Canadian production sites are in trouble. The fact that the Leamington facility was operating at less than 50% capacity and the plant itself is 100 years old probably didn't help. This is just the latest of many that have happened over the past 5 years.
The sad thing is it's not only 740 workers at the Leamington facility, where the heck are all of those tomatoes going to end up going? If the farmers are lucky, the production sites that will take over the production will get their tomatoes from them but it's unlikely. Production would most likely go to Fremont OH and Muscatine IA.