How Sweet it is
Written by Anthony Krstic
SucroCan Sourcing LLC’s new facility further sweetens the pot for food processing investment in Hamilton.
Over the years, Hamilton has been known by many nicknames: “Steel Town,” or “The Waterfall Capital of Canada” were more official designations to go with the colloquial “the Biggest Small Town in Ontario.”
But come 2025, Hamilton will earn a new moniker, as the opening of SucroCan Sourcing LLC’s sugar refinery at the Port of Hamilton will have people calling Hamilton “Canada’s Sugar Shack.”
The $135 million investment in the city will create the largest sugar refinery plant in Canada. Expected to have a refining capacity of 1 million metric tonnes annually, the plant will take up 20 acres of industrial real estate along Pier 15.
If it sounds like a sweet deal, that’s because it is. Ontario’s food and beverage manufacturing sector is the third largest in North America, with manufacturing revenues of more than $48 billion.
More than 104,800 people are employed in 4,675 establishments across the province, with many of them finding home in Hamilton over the past decade.
“The sugar markets in both Canada and the United States are experiencing steady, long-term, sustainable growth, and SucroCan is investing to supply these growing market demands,” explains Jonathan Taylor, Founder and CEO of SucroCan Sourcing. “We have a loyal and growing customer base that benefits from the growing competition that we are bringing to the market.” A truly global company (SucroCan has offices in Miami, Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Cali, Guayaquil, and the Port of Spain), the new Pier 15 refinery is not the first establishment SucroCan has in Hamilton.
In 2019, the company first arrived in the city by building a granular sugar refinery on Ferguson St. North.
Nor will SucroCan be the only major food manufacturing company in the city. SucroCan will be joining candy manufacturers Karma Candy as well as Mondelez Canada, both of which are well-established in Hamilton already.
Why are so many food manufacturers flocking to Hamilton? It’s a simple matter of logistics.
“We worked closely with SucroCan to understand its location and logistics needs, as well as those of its customers,” says Ian Hamilton, President and CEO of the Hamilton-Oshawa Port Authority.
“The new refinery, located in the heart of southern Ontario’s food processing cluster, has access to marine, rail, and highway transportation options.”
– Ian Hamilton, HOPA President & CEO.
Hamilton notes that investments like this tend to inspire similar growth, and give other companies confidence to make their own investments. “Driving a resilient and efficient supply chain, growing the economy, and creating jobs,” are three benefits to the SucroCan refinery that anyone can get excited about, he says.
“For us, this is a huge win.”
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