Nestlé Canada completes $50m Toronto confectionery expansion
Nestlé Canada has completed a $50m capital project at its confectionery facility in Toronto. The plant employs about 550 people and makes KitKat, Aero, Smarties and Coffee Crisp, among other products. The expansion combines new production equipment with changes to the site’s internal infrastructure.
The principal operational addition is a moulding line designed to handle several confectionery formats. It can switch between batches quickly and is intended to increase throughput for KitKat and Aero. The equipment gives the factory additional flexibility in managing production across those brands and formats.
The Toronto site’s output also includes established Canadian products such as Smarties and Coffee Crisp. Their manufacture depends on specialised dairy solids, milk crumb and cocoa formulations. These ingredients form part of the plant’s confectionery production alongside the chocolate products made on the upgraded line.
The project also reworked the layout of the facility. Changes cover the movement of freight, internal storage and loading-dock activity at the plant, which operates in a dense urban area along Sterling Road. The redesign addresses the site’s vehicle movements and the handling of goods within the factory.
New systems for monitoring energy use and utilities were included in the infrastructure work. The systems track resources used at the site and are intended to improve resource efficiency and lower the plant’s operational carbon intensity. The source does not provide a numerical target for the reduction.
The plant’s chocolate production operates under Rainforest Alliance certification. Nestlé says its cocoa is sourced through the Nestlé Cocoa Plan and its Income Accelerator Program. Those programmes support about 45,000 cocoa-farming households in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana.
The Toronto expansion therefore combines increased confectionery capacity with certified cocoa sourcing and changes to the site’s logistics and monitoring systems. The finished goods are produced domestically at the Canadian facility, while the relevant cocoa-sourcing programmes cover farming households in the two West African countries.
