Province funding $1-million expansion
Merit Precision to make sanitizer bottles for Charlotte Products
Peterborough’s Merit Precision will use $1 million in provincial funding for an expansion that will allow the company to manufacture bottles for hand sanitizers and disinfectants.
Peterborough-Kawartha MPP Dave Smith was joined by Economic Development Minister Vic Fedeli for the online announcement Monday.
Smith said it’s fantastic news for the Peterborough community that saw an unemployment rate of 13.5 per cent last month, the highest of Canada’s census metropolitan areas for a second month in a row.
“Any time we have the opportunity to announce an investment that will create new jobs in this community it is a very good thing to have,” Smith said.
The new jobs will not be seasonal, nor will they be parttime, he added.
“These are full-time positions in long established companies that have great track records of being exceptional corporate citizens within our community,” Smith said.
Merit Precision, which manufactures parts and components for the automotive industry using injection-moulded plastics, will create 10 new jobs in addition to the 75 positions its already has.
The company will expand its Peterborough operation to
“We will never be caught without a capability to manufacture all the PPE we need in Ontario.” VIC FEDELI ONTARIO’S ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT MINISTER
make bottles for products also made in Peterborough by Charlotte Products.
There was a desire to help other businesses in the area needing assistance, said Tim Barrie, president and general manager of Merit Precision Moulding.
Charlotte Products was experiencing a disruption from suppliers that created a delay in delivering the company’s final products.
“Charlotte Products experienced a different problem,” Barrie said.
“Their regular supply chain could not deliver the bottles needed to package their sanitizers and disinfectants.”
Merit Precision could not help at first because of the price of moulds needed to complete the job, he said.
“What we needed was specific equipment that was very expensive and had a long time of procurement,” Barrie said.
“The Ontario Together Fund is helping Merit Precision purchase two blow moulding machines and the associated moulds to manufacture bottles for Charlotte Products.”
Fideli said the funding was born out of the desire to make Ontario a leader in providing more solutions for small businesses throughout Ontario.
“When this pandemic began, all of the work was to unleash the unstoppable force of Ontario’s workers and Ontario’s innovation to build in Ontario made solutions,” Fideli said.
The response certainly helped bring about what Premier Doug Ford coined the “Ontario Spirit,” he said.
“We will never be caught without a capability to manufacture all the PPE we need in Ontario,” Fideli said.
“The response from the people of Ontario, the business owners, the workers, and the communities was incredible.”
The Ontario Together Fund is a $50-million fund designed to help Ontario companies increase the province’s production of personal protective equipment and other COVID-19-related products.