Production Technician, Saint-Laurent Plant

For Adolfo Velandia, working at Agropur is like a dream come true. From the moment he arrived in Canada in 2004, after working in the dairy industry in his native Colombia, he was drawn to the Cooperative.

“One of the first things I did when I bought groceries here for the first time was to look at the dairy shelves,” says the food engineer. “I saw that Natrel was the brand with the most products and the most shelf space. I knew right away that was where I wanted to work.”

Now a production technician at the Ville-Saint-Laurent plant, where he has worked for 16 years, Adolfo can proudly say he made it. But like all such stories, getting there took a lot of work and a little luck.

“Adolfo is colourful, engaging and fun to spend time with. He loves his work and strives to be a better technician. He’s quick to tackle problems that need solving. With his know-how and personality, he’s an authority in his field and a real asset to Agropur.”

– Maxime Agbeci, production manager, Ville-Saint-Laurent plant

After graduating from university in Colombia in 1998, Adolfo began working at a dairy one year later. Prompted by losing the job he loved and the instability in his home country, he chose to leave for the United States, where his mother lived, in 2002. He began to learn English and dreamed of a fresh start. Unsuccessful in the U.S., he returned to Colombia and decided to take steps to immigrate to Canada.

Arriving in Canada alone and unable to speak French, Adolfo worked extra hard to integrate into his new homeland. “I worked in a metal parts factory and studied French at night. After two-and-a-half years, I managed to enroll in the food processing program at Cégep de Lanaudière in Joliette,” says Adolfo. The program director, one of his teachers, happened to be a former manager at Agropur. The rest, as Adolfo says, is history. “He liked my work in class and helped me get an internship at Agropur. I did the internship at the Saint-Laurent plant and then I was hired, first as an operator and later as a technician. My dream became reality.”

Friends with everyone and known for his sense of humour, Adolfo is in his element at Saint-Laurent. “I feel I make a difference in a field I love. I’m happy to go to work every day and learn new things,” he says. Adolfo is also involved in several committees and task forces at the plant.

In his free time, Adolfo enjoys travelling Quebec’s roads on his motorbike. Leaving early in the morning and returning late in the evening, he particularly likes the roads of the Eastern Townships and the Rawdon and Chute-à-Bull areas of the Lanaudière region.

But most of all, he loves spending time with his 10-year-old daughter. “It’s important for me to show her Colombian culture. The whole family reunites regularly in Colombia, my mother and brother, who are in Miami, and my sister, who is still in Cartagena. We can’t wait to go back,” he says.

Name: Adolfo Velandia

Plant: Saint-Laurent (Montreal)

Role: Production Technician                           

Duties: Adolfo is currently working on certifying the new UHT (ultra-high temperature) system recently installed at the Saint-Laurent plant. His responsibilities include learning the details of each phase of the process, from washing to production, and training the technicians who will operate the new equipment. Another aspect of his job is to standardize procedures for operating and maintaining the system to reduce downtime.