On August 29, our company Redpath Sugar was delighted to host the Honorable Rob Flack, Minister of Agriculture, Food and Agribusiness, and the Honorable Julie Dabrusin, Member of Parliament, at our Toronto Refinery, where they highlighted the Agri-tech Innovation Initiative (ATII) of the Canadian and Ontario governments. The initiative supports Canadian businesses in the agri-food sector by investing in innovative technologies to increase competitiveness in the global industry. Alongside this funding, we continue to invest millions of dollars at our Toronto Refinery and Belleville Plant through projects aimed at improving our efficiency, advancing us toward decarbonization and helping us continue to deliver excellent service for our customers.
Toronto Refinery Manager Rob Gentilcore welcomed our guests, who announced the initiative's success during an event held in our raw sugar shed.
“As an economic engine in Ontario for more than 170 years, Redpath Sugar continues to make significant investments to improve our operational excellence and manufacturing across our plants,” said Rob. “The Agri-tech Innovation Initiative has supported our investment in two critical projects that will significantly expand our efficiency and capacity and further reduce our environmental footprint.”
Funding through the Agri-tech Innovation Initiative supports our efforts to replace approximately 3,000 lights in the Toronto Refinery with new, energy-efficient LED light fixtures. We have contributed nearly $2 million to install LED lighting in our warehouse, raw sugar shed, offices and refinery. The project is more than 95 percent complete and is expected to reduce our CO2 emissions by 45 metric tons per year.
The Toronto Refinery, which marks 65 years on the city’s waterfront this year, provides more than 300 jobs. One of the most technologically advanced sugar refineries in North America, the plant supplies much of the Canadian market and continues to expand its capacity to meet the growing demand in Canada’s thriving food manufacturing sector.
"We are proud of our 65-year heritage in Toronto as a crucial food maker in Canada’s agricultural supply chain,” said Cyril Ryan, Senior Vice President of Redpath Sugar. “We welcome the ATII program’s investment in our efficiency and productivity, as it will help enable our continued long-term competitiveness."
Additionally, our innovative M7 project at our Belleville Plant will increase efficiency, capacity and output of our bulk blending operations. Funding through the initiative will support our efforts to significantly expand our value-added product offerings to include sugar blends with three times the ingredients, increasing our competitive advantage. In addition to the government’s support through the initiative, we are investing more than $5 million to ensure the success of the M7 project.
The Belleville Plant, an innovative dry blending and packaging plant that employs more than 150 people, co-manufactures major retail brands and private label products, such as sweetened iced tea, hot chocolate and other sugar-containing products for Canadian and export markets.