Sysco facility to bring up to 350 jobs to Woodstock

Brand new gigantic food distribution centre to be built

For the second time in less than four days, the City of Woodstock has received great news on the economic front.

With Toyota announcing 400 new jobs for its Cambridge facility earlier in the week, which increases the Woodstock-Cambridge employment number to 7,300, then Woodstock’s development office made public Thursday that a brand new food distribution warehouse would be built in the Commerce Way Park business area, opening its doors in late 2013.

Heart FM (104.7 FM) announced that this new enterprise could bring as many as 350 full-time jobs to Woodstock.

The City of Woodstock announced it has reached an agreement to sell 57 acres of vacant industrial land in Commerce Way to Sysco Canada (http://www.sysco.ca/), where it plans to build a 400,000-square foot (37,160 m²), state-of-the-art distribution facility. According a press release from city hall, construction is expected to start as early as this fall.

A formal press conference was conducted Thursday (July 26) in council chambers at City Hall.

Mayor Pat Sobeski welcomed the official announcement of Sysco’s investment saying, “We are extremely pleased to be able to confirm that Sysco has selected Woodstock for this important investment.  Sysco is a Fortune 75 company, and their decision to invest in Woodstock says plenty about the benefits our community can offer a new or expanding business.” 

“Sysco Canada is pleased to be locating our newest facility in this region to Woodstock and the Commerce Way Business Park,” said Rodney Stroud, market president of Sysco Canada-East and president of Sysco Central Ontario. “This reinforces our commitment to be our Ontario customers’ most valued and trusted business partner. We are excited about the location, the surface-roads infrastructure, and the ability to serve our current customers and grow our business from a state-of-the-art distribution center.”

The press release from the mayor’s office added that Sysco has agreed to pay approximately $2.7 million for the land. ($47,370 per acre). Plans call for Sysco’s facility to have approximately 89,000 square feet of freezer space; 49,000 square feet of cooler space; 41,000 square feet of cold dock space; a 101,000-square foot dry warehouse; a 31,000-square foot dry dock; 17,000 square feet for material handling and equipment storage; and 67,000 square feet of office space.

Mayor Sobeski noted “this investment is an excellent example of Woodstock’s ongoing efforts to diversify the local economy.”

Woodstock municipal staff worked diligently to secure the Sysco investment for well over a year.  Through the process, Woodstock advanced from a long list of prospective communities to a short list of locations that were invited to respond to a formal request for proposal, and ultimately to a preferred site for the company’s investment. 

Development Commissioner Len Magyar welcomed Sysco to Woodstock’s business community noting, “This announcement is great news for our community on so many fronts.  This investment represents a significant land sale, a huge construction project and the creation of good paying jobs.  As a bonus the investment comes from a company (Sysco) with a great reputation and a long-term commitment to doing business in southern Ontario”.

Sysco Corporation, headquartered in Houston, Texas, sells, markets and distributes food products to restaurants, healthcare and educational facilities, lodging establishments and other customers who prepare meals away from home, primarily in the United States and Canada. Its family of products also includes equipment and supplies for the foodservice and hospitality industries. The company operates 177 distribution facilities serving approximately 400,000 customers. For the fiscal year 2011 that ended July 2, 2011, the company generated record sales of more than $39 billion.

My Additional Thoughts

The City’s Woodstock Now promotions through its development office have noted recently that the City has over 400 acres of vacant industrial land and more than 160 acres already fully serviced. The City always promotes these land sales as not including any development charges – in an effort to promote landing (pun intended) new investment such as Sysco. The February issue from Woodstock Now indicated that Commerce Way still had 120 available acres, but the pricing was noted as $70,000 per acre. Enticing employment and the size of this venture (57 acres) creates a good-news good-news economic story.