Bonduelle Canada has announced some major upgrades planned for its Ontario operations, including the plant in Tecumseh.
With an $8.5-million boost from the province's Jobs and Prosperity Fund, Bonduelle is getting set to spend nearly $80-million at its facilities in Tecumseh, Ingersoll and Strathroy.
A statement from the company says the investment will create roughly 90 jobs while helping to retain more than 700.
Tecumseh Mayor Gary McNamara says an announcement like this will have an impact from the field to the final product.
"It secures those contracts for many, many hundreds of farmers that produce for Bonduelle. For the 200-plus full-time workers, this is great news and the 500 during the packing season that come in to work there over the summer months, good news for them too."
Tecumseh Mayor Gary McNamara chairs the regular meeting of council as the 2018 budget is presented on November 14, 2017. (Photo by Ricardo Veneza)
He says, despite the major fire in 2014, Bonduelle continues to play a big part in the local community.
"They're a good corporate citizen, number one, but you've got to go back to the quality of the product that's grown here. They made a promise four years ago that they were going to rebuild. Now they finally are putting the cherry on top of the cake and this is good news for our town."
McNamara says it's hard to measure just how many positives come from an expansion like this.
"That means more product coming into the plant. That means more employment in terms of transports into the plant. More farms maybe. It touches a lot of people. So when we talk about 250 people working, those hundreds become thousands of people that it actually affects."
The company says much of the investment will be focused on export markets with a goal of increasing U.S. exports by $34-million per year or about 55% over current levels.
Bonduelle has eight facilities in Canada which produce 250-million pounds of vegetables annually.