Cambridge snack food plant receives Ontario funding for upgrades

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

by SUSAN MANN

The Cambridge Frito-Lay snack food plant received one of the largest Ontario Rural Economic Development program grants in the program’s history to upgrade sections of its facility.

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne announced funding Tuesday in Cambridge of $3 million for the plant owned by PepsiCo Foods Canada.

PepsiCo Foods Canada spokesperson Sheri Morgan says the company’s investment in the project “is substantially more than what the Ontario government” is providing for the upgrades. Morgan says she can’t release the exact amount the company is spending on the plant’s improvements because its earnings report is being released in a couple of weeks and “we’re in a quiet period at the moment. We’re not able to talk about specific numbers.”

The upgrades include replacing older equipment on one of the seasoning lines and on the packaging lines. The work will be done over the next year, Morgan says.

Morgan says PepsiCo Foods Canada applied to the Ontario program for the grant.

The government’s June 16 press release says the plant manufactures Frito-Lay products and employs more than 550 people. The government’s money through the Rural Economic Development program “is expected to secure these jobs,” the release says.

In a telephone interview Tuesday, Wynne says “my hope would be they will be able to stay in Ontario for many, many years to come. We want to keep the jobs that are here in food processing and we want to create more.”

PepsiCo Foods Canada has operated the Cambridge plant for more than 50 years. It supports the local economy through employment, the procurement of raw materials (mainly potatoes from Alliston and Leamington), spending on utilities and other goods and services, the release says.

Wynne says 95 per cent of the product used by the Frito-Lay plant comes from Ontario.

The rural economic development program is an annual $14.5 million program that helps rural communities and regions grow their economic base, attract investment and invest in the skills of residents.

Since 2003, the program has generated $1.2 billion in economic activity and created 37,000 jobs across rural Ontario, the release says.

A spokesman from Wynne’s office says by email the grant to PepsiCo Foods Canada is one of the largest ever made through the program. The greatest amount, $7 million, was made to frozen pizza manufacturer, Dr. Oetker, to build a plant in London. BF