While the lingering U.S. tariff threat has added volatility to our economy, businesses continue to look forward.
There was evidence of that in Strathroy on Tuesday, where leading North American food processor Nortera unveiled a major expansion.
A large bay door was opened to reveal a massive, modern warehouse - with the temperature set at minus 5 degrees.
Nortera Vice-President of Operations Rob Anderson told those gathered, “We have a lot more capacity. It’s a lot closer to where our product is. It reduces a lot of the issues that our teams had in the past.”
The company undertook a 100,000 square foot expansion to its frozen warehouse facility in the north end of Strathroy, bringing the total size of the facility to almost 350-thousand square feet.
The expansion was a $25 million investment, which Anderson said is strategic to the company’s growth plans, “We’re in close proximity to our customers, to our processing facilities, and we have great employees here.”
Even as they were celebrating the expansion, the cloud created by potential tariffs wasn’t far away.
Nortera CEO Hugo Boisvert had planned to attend the reveal, but Anderson offered this explanation to those gathered, “As you’re aware, there’s a few things happening in the global economy and Hugo’s attending to those items.”
Nortera processes frozen and canned vegetables. The company offers yet another example of the deep economic ties between the U.S. and Canada.
The company has headquarters in both countries and thirteen processing plants in the two countries.
The expanded Strathroy warehouse allows for faster, more efficient handling of the frozen products being distributed on both sides of the border.
Anderson told CTV News, “There’s two reasons why we built the facility. One, outside third-party warehouse space is getting more difficult to find, and it’s expensive. Plus, we want to store the product close to where we process it, where we make our vegetables and to where we distribute it.”
The expanded warehouse facility will handle product from three processing plants across southern Ontario. One is located in the south end of Strathroy. The others are in Tecumseh and Ingersoll.
Strathroy-Caradoc Mayor Colin Grantham believes the economic outlook remains bright, “I think this area, this is the next area in southern Ontario to boom.”
Grantham said agriculture industries and tapping into the U.S. markets is a key component of that outlook, “Agriculture continues to be our number one industry. Everybody looks at, you know, manufacturing. But agriculture in Strathroy-Caradoc is our number one industry.”
Anderson said the expansion will add seven to 10 employees to the 34 already at the warehouse. But more efficient warehousing should provide opportunities to grow the production units and create more opportunities for farmers in the region.
