Fruit Snack Co. is opening a new fruit snack production facility in the vacant former CanGro Foods Inc. plant in St. Davids, Ontario. The facility will initially employ 9 people and process local fruits like peaches and pears into healthy, natural fruit snacks. The startup received $884,570 in funding from the province and will provide new markets for local fruit growers to sell bruised or damaged crops. The owner, John Boot, has over 20 years of experience in the dried fruit snack industry and hopes to create a similar successful operation in Niagara to process local fruits into snacks.

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www.naturalfruitsnacks.ca
329 Four Mile Creek Road, St. Davids, Ontario, Canada L0S 1P0
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2. Fruit Snack Co.
www.naturalfruitsnacks.ca
329 Four Mile Creek Road, St. Davids, Ontario, Canada L0S 1P0
Fruit snack firm brings life to old cannery
The former CanGro Foods Inc. plant in St. Davids,Ontario is getting a second chance at becoming a fruit factory
mecca.
On Friday morning, dried-fruit snack entrepreneur John Boot announced plans to open a new company called
Niagara Natural Fruit Snacks Inc. in part of the vacant former fruit cannery. The all-natural fruit snack plant will
initially employ nine people and take in fruit from local growers when it opens this April.
The snacks are a healthy option for people and the economy, Boot said at a news conference Friday morning in his
new 25,000-square-foot warehouse. "It's good for the local fruit-processing industry because you start to use fruit
from the farm industry, whether that's apples or pears," Boot said. "It brings added value to the farmers and an
additional market for them to expand business."
Boot said he plans to produce about 100,000 snack packets per shift once operations start up and use several types of
fruits, including peaches and pears. Boot said it's too soon to know how many growers and fruit processors he'll need
for the new company.
But Len Troup, chairman of the Ontario Tender Fruit Producers Marketing Board, said any new avenues through
which their produce can be sold is welcome news for Niagara fruit growers. Dozens of peach and pear growers lost a
huge chunk of their market after U. S.-based Sun Capital Partners Inc. closed CanGro last June. Growers who sell to
the fresh market would be able to sell bruised or damaged fruit to the company, that would otherwise go to waste,
Troup said. "It means another processing facility coming back instead of another shutting down," Troup said. "This is
another market for our growers."
The project has the support of the province, which gave the start-up company $884,570 for high-tech equipment
through its Rural Economic Development Program.
Niagara Falls MPP Kim Craitor, who fought to save CanGro, said he's thrilled to see a new fruit-processing plant in
the old cannery. Craitor said it was extremely tough on the community and the growers to watch the last remaining
fruit cannery east of the Rockies die last year. "I want to say it's exciting," Craitor said. "I'm so proud and pleased."
Boot has the resume to make Niagara Natural Fruit Snacks a success, supporters said Friday. A St. Catharines native,
Boot spent more than 20 years in the dried-fruit snack industry in British Columbia. He was the founder and previous
owner of Kettle Valley Dried Fruit Company based in Summerland, B. C., which produces natural fruit snacks, fruit
leathers and fruit bars. The company operated three factories and had more than 60 employees when Boot sold the
business five years ago.
Boot said he hopes to create a similar operation in Niagara. "We'll just go wherever the market lets us go," Boot said.
Boot is renting the space from Niagara-on-the-Lake developer Rainer Hummel, who owns the property at 329 Four
Mile Creek Rd. Hummel said he's targeting food companies to fill the remaining 125,000 square feet of warehouse
space.
Copyright © 2009 St. Catharines Standard - April 2009