Article content A British Columbia-based poultry processing company is building a new $100-million processing plant in Woodstock, the Ontario government announced Wednesday. Sunrise Farms will build a 155,000-square-foot facility that the province says will create 100 jobs in the Oxford County city and support 248 existing positions across Ontario. The province is contributing $4 million through Invest Ontario, its investment attraction agency.
“Once complete, this facility will be one of the most technologically advanced poultry processing plants in the entire nation, contributing to the innovation and excellence that Ontario’s agri-food processing ecosystem is well known for,” Vic Fedeli, Ontario’s minister of economic development, said at a news conference. “By sourcing from Ontario farmers, Sunrise will also generate new economic opportunities for broader rural communities and strengthen its partnership with our local industrial organizations.” The facility will be built on Alyea Street along the south side of Highway 401 west of the Norwich Avenue interchange, said Brad Hammond, the development commissioner for Woodstock Economic Development. No construction or opening timeline was released, though a slideshow presented at the announcement showed initial excavation work underway at the site.
Ontario’s chicken and turkey producers supported $3.1 billion in direct gross domestic product and more than 52,000 direct jobs across the province’s agri-food sector in 2024, according to the province. Agriculture, Food and Agribusiness Minister Trevor Jones said in a statement that Ontario’s broader agri-food sector generates $52 billion in GDP and employs one in nine people in the province. “This significant investment by Sunrise Farms to expand their processing capacity will help ensure our province remains a global leader in food production while creating jobs and strengthening Ontario’s food independence,” the statement said.
The province said Sunrise Farms plans to expand distribution of its halal-certified Sargent Farms products across Canada once it receives a federal licence from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. Sunrise chief executive David Shoore said the Woodstock facility represents the company’s largest greenfield development project to date. Sunrise Farms already operates three facilities in Southwestern Ontario, including a primary processing plant in Milton and secondary processing plants in Waterloo and Cambridge.
Founded in 1983, the company employs 3,600 workers across Ontario, British Columbia, Manitoba and Alberta. “We are pleased to continue our growth by expanding our operations within Ontario,” Shoore said. “This development is expected to deliver substantial economic benefits to the region and reinforce Ontario’s food system.” Woodstock Mayor Jerry Acchione credited the city’s economic development team with helping land the investment, saying it will support local farmers and further diversify the local economy.
“To Sunrise Farms, thank you for choosing Woodstock for this important investment. We appreciate your confidence in our city, our workforce and our community,” he said at the news conference. “Woodstock is known as a welcoming and friendly city, and we’re proud that you see the value and opportunities our community offers for businesses to grow and succeed.” Hammond told The Free Press that agri-food is one sector where Woodstock has relatively limited industrial presence, making the investment especially significant.
He also noted the benefit of attracting a Canadian company. In addition to the long-term investment, Hammond said the project will create construction jobs and strengthen the region’s agricultural supply chain. “Agri-food is on many economic development offices’ radar partly because, in some ways, it’s recession-proof.
People always need to eat, and the spinoffs from it are very good too,” he said. “Fertilizer suppliers, seed suppliers, equipment suppliers and the chicken growers themselves – the supply chain goes pretty deep into the community.”
