New food processing facility coming to Brantford

Apr 30, 2021

Upfield Canada will construct its plant on 17.4 acres in the community

By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com

The city of Brantford will be home to a new food processing facility.

In March, Upfield Canada, known for goods like Becel margarine and new Violife vegan cheese products, received an $18-million building permit from the City of Brantford to construct a new processing plant.

The new location will sit on 17.4 acres at 8-10 Craig St. and span about 164,000-square-feet.

The company will also invest in additional infrastructure improvements and equipment.

Approximate location of the new Upfield Canada plant

The 86-person staff from the company’s current Etobicoke location will transfer to the new Brantford location. The new plant is expected to create more jobs and increase product output.

And if all goes according to plan the new facility could be up and running by the end of 2021.

Upfield Canada originally submitted its proposal to the City of Brantford in October 2020.

The new location represents the company’s growth, said Dan Bajor, president of Upfield Canada.

"Upfield is investing and innovating to expand our plant-based business in Canada and introduce a new product line here, our plant-based cheese product, Violife,” he said in a press release at the time. “As part of this expansion, we are launching production in Brantford," "Our new state-of-the art facility will supply our spreads and plant-based cheese product to Canadian consumers and support the export of Violife to the United States and eventually to markets in Latin America."

March 2021 turned out to be a busy month for City staff to issue building permits.

Staff issued 118 permits totaling more than $27 million.

“The rise in permit numbers and construction values for the month of March is the start of what will prove to be a very busy construction year for the City of Brantford,” Andy McMahon, chief building official and director of building services, told The Expositor.

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