TORONTO – Amid a climate of “woe is me – tariffs R us”, an Italian company, Ferrero, chose to announce the expansion of its operations in Canada. It has allocated a $445 million investment in its Brantford plant west of Toronto, and launched not one, but two new product lines.

The launch of new product lines outside of Italian borders is the first of its kind since the Ferrero family founded the chocolate manufacturing enterprise in 1946.

Understand that this is a private sector investment, pure and simple. Omar Zausa, Ferrero Canada’s managing director, attributed the decision to the company’s mantra of “thrive, prosper and grow”… and nurture the environment that contributes to that outcome.

Premier Ford, accompanied by Ministers Vic Fedeli (Economic development), Trevor Jones (Agriculture and agriproducts) and local MPP Will Bouma re-enforced the government’s role to provide for physical infrastructure, assist in human resources training and protect jobs for and in the community.

The premier announced an important $36 million commitment to infrastructure improvement as part of a global $220 billion allocation by the province to promote growth and keep jobs in Ontario. Even so, that is a welcome boost for Ferrero, a significant multinational corporation. Its last Financial Statement, August 2024, declared an impressive global presence: 18.4 billion Euro (Cdn $28.9 billion) in economic activity through 37 production plants employing 47,517.

Friday’s announcement was purely local. The Brantford plant already employs 1,600 people. This one half billion dollars injection by head office will allow the Canadian operation to create an additional 500 net new jobs, according to Mr. Zausa. It is already a thriving enterprise, Eric Houdet, the plant manager, pointed out, that produces seven million Ferrero Rocher per day. Approximately 70% of production is shipped to the USA.

For the Italian Ambassador, Alessandro Cattaneo, the investment demonstrates how much in synch Canadian and Italian commercial interests are in a climate of intensifying trade competition. “There is so much untapped potential and benefit [to both countries] in trade privileges as they steer in the same direction”, he added.

Luca Zelioli, Consul General from Toronto with responsibilities for Ontario, Manitoba and the Northwest Territories, echoed the nature of those interests ‘in synch’: Canada and Italy share values characterized by a solid and stable relationship.

The Brantford area is a location rich in resources – natural and hi-tech – for a company like Ferrero.

Friday, it was left to the mayor, Kevin Davis, to express the enthusiasm everyone expected when Ferrero first came on the scene twenty- three years ago: the company is the biggest manufacturer, the biggest employer and… the biggest taxpayer.