Saskatoon’s Shercom Industries to lay off 79 employees in December

Seventy-nine employees at Saskatoon’s Shercom Industries Inc. will be out of work by Dec. 2, according to a brief letter sent to the Ministry of Labour dated Oct. 23 from Shercom CEO Mike Richards.

In a telephone interview Shane Olson, company president, said some of the affected employees have been working at the company for decades. Many of the employees work in the value-added manufacturing division.

Saskatoon’s Shercom Industries Inc. to lay off 79 employees in December. (Shercom Industries Inc.)

“We are obligated by the labour laws to give them sufficient notice — in excess of five weeks for some,” he said.

At its peak in 2022, the former scrap tire recycler employed just over 140 people. Now, Olson said fewer than two dozen employees will remain.

“We’ll have a skeleton staff of about 20 to 22 people. The remaining staff form a part of our core leadership team,” he said.

In early May 2023, Olson said how tires were collected and processed in Saskatchewan fundamentally changed, and resulted in the shutdown of their collection and processing operations, and layoffs at that time as well.

California-based Crumb Rubber Manufacturing now collects all scrap tires in Saskatchewan, but according to Olson, the product the company collects is sent out of province.

Olson said he is now faced with trying to redirect the company, adding all of the tires in the province are now being exported, and no recycling is taking place.