Nestlé is spending over $51 million on upgrades to its ice cream factory in London, Ontario that supplies all of Canada with Haagen-Dazs, Parlour and Drumstick products.
Groundwork has started on an expansion that will increase the plant’s footprint by 9,000 square feet, while adding 12 new jobs and shifting 45 seasonal part-time positions to full-time.
The company isn’t saying how the expansion will impact demand from dairy farms, other than “this expansion project and the resulting production will increase ingredient, packaging and raw material supplier purchases,” noting “Nestlé Canada is proud to be one of the largest purchasers of Canadian dairy…”
“We are really proud to be a part of the London community and excited to be making this significant investment,” said Jayne Payette, Business Executive Officer, Ice Cream at Nestlé Canada. “Our employees work hard every day to bring these great Made In Canada brands to our consumers and this investment allows us to bring even more exciting and innovative products to market.”
It was announced on Friday that the company is receiving $390,000 from the South Western Ontario Development Fund for upgrades to the cleaning technology on each individual production line.
Nestlé says it started reconfiguring and consolidating production lines in early 2016 to increase capacity for Haagen-Dazs products, after which it added a second Drumstick line.
Nestlé is the world’s largest food and beverage company, with operations in 189 countries. The company says Nestlé Canada has around 3,500 employees at 20 locations.
