Canada is leading globally in Advanced Manufacturing and is continuing to grow due to heavy investment in research and development, tax rates, scores of trade agreements, and infrastructure. Over the last three years, Kingston’s manufacturing sector expanded at a healthy average annual rate of 2.6 per cent and has been lately an eye- catcher for many International businesses looking for a growth and expansion opportunity.
Many international companies have chosen Kingston as a strategic area
to launch and expand their Research & Development facilities. One business that recently decided to call Kingston home is the Portuguese food processor, Frulact Group. Frulact is known globally for their
fruit based preparations for application in the dairy, ice- cream, beverages, and industrial pastry markets. Frulact CEO, Joao Miranda expressed how successful their journey has been since choosing Kingston to open their plant,“We are very pleased to announce that we have chosen the City of Kingston, Ontario to receive our new international production plant of fruit preparations, which will serve as a platform to the North- East American market.
The capacity to attract foreign investment shown by the City of Kingston and Kingston Economic Development played a crucial role in our decision
to go to Ontario, allowing us to accelerate our growth and recognition as a global company.” Another local win is Feihe International, a Chinese manufacturer of infant formula, soybean, rice, cereal, and milk powder is one of the many International companies that followed an expansion plan that selected Kingston as a base for their operations in North America.
Kingston currently possesses four Business Parks: Cataraqui Estates Business Park, Clyde Industrial Park,Alcan Business Park, and St. Lawrence Business Park.These lands are one of the many crucial assets of Kingston. It offers space to manufacture and innovate according to companies own settings. Industrial land in Kingston can cost between $85,000 to $130,000 per acre with most of the lands located within 5 kilometres of Highway 401, which puts Kingston as a prime location for export based goods and services. Kingston has recently invested in infrastructure upgrades to the regional airport and is located 50 kilometres east of the Picton Terminals.
Kingston’s culture of innovation and entrepreneurship is growing and bringing with it new people, big ideas, diverse personalities, and a fresh outlook on how to drive economic development.
The City is bringing people together and supporting their drive to create, explore, and innovate the community by investing more than $2 billion dollars of planned, ongoing, and completed infrastructure over the past three years with and upcoming years.
From the City’s workforce expertise, growing population and its strategic location and business parks, there are numerous beneficial factors to provide businesses with the best opportunity possible to manufacture, innovate, and succeed.
For more information about the key business sectors, or to learn more about relocating, expanding or starting up a business in kingston please visit https://www.kingstonecdev.com/
