Ontario is investing nearly $2-million through the Regional Development Program to support investments of more than $44 million being made by three Windsor area companies.
According to the province, the investment will strengthen local manufacturing, attract new investment, boost regional economic recovery, and help to create 78 jobs.
Medicap Laboratories, Canadian Premier Supplements, and Cedar Valley Selections are the three local companies benefiting from the investment.
Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade Vic Fedeli was in Windsor on Monday and says they're proud to support local manufacturers across the province as they look to grow and create good, local jobs.
"Now more than ever before we're looking to the future as we work towards the economic recovery, and if there's a role our government can play in supporting businesses' and their expansions and promoting their local talent that's something that we really want to be a part of."
Rob Hindi
Medicap is an Ontario leader in the dietary and nutritional supplement manufacturing sector, and their investment of more than $38 million over a three to four year period will result in increased and more efficient production capacity due to the addition of new state-of-the-art equipment with the province's support of $926,640 through the Regional Development Program.
Medicap Business Operations Manager Rahul Rajpura says they have an active production facility, but they're adding new machines and automation while planning to increase their production capacity by 200 per cent.
"There will be different kind of machines. It includes tablet manufacturing, capsule manufacturing and the gummies manufacturing. Currently we don't have any gummy manufacturing production facility in Ontario, so this would be the first of its kind for gummy manufacturing in Ontario."
Vancho Cirovski, President of Medicap's partner SofTab Technologies, says the machinery coming in is state of the art that requires a smaller footprint to manufacture.
"You can do this in a 5,000 square foot facility, you could put a machine in. From the start of the formulation to the packaging, it's all contained within that 5,000 square feet of space. Amazing, amazing new technology and there are only two machines already in Norway, the third one is coming here and we have room for an expansion for a second machine."
The expanded production capacity will allow the company to forge new strategic partnerships, create jobs, diversify their product offerings, and become more competitive to meet growing global market demand.
The company expects the investment will add 50 new jobs to their workforce.
Canadian Premier Supplements, which specializes in custom nutritional supplement formulations for private-label customers, is making an investment of more than $5 million which will result in the addition of a manufacturing facility with advanced automation, production and packaging equipment with Ontario's support of $770,332 through the Regional Development Program.
The project will enhance the company's production capacity and open new market opportunities that will increase revenues, and they expect this investment to add 20 jobs to their workforce.
Cedar Valley Selections is a food manufacturer based in Oldcastle that produces a lineup of all-natural salad dressings sold in grocery stores across Canada.
Their investment of over $1 million will allow the company to scale up and automate their production and packaging lines for their recently introduced non-GMO Pita Chips, and Ontario's investment of $162,134 will support the company as they manage a growth trajectory to supply 1,500 stores by the end of the year.
Cedar Valley projects the upgrades to their current operations will add eight jobs to their workforce.
- with files from Rob Hindi