Canadian sugar giant Lantic, whose parent company Rogers Sugar Inc. is worth nearly $600 million on the stock market, wants a $65 million loan from Quebec to help it modernize its operations on Quebec soil.
“The demand for sugar is increasing enormously. In the country there is us and Redpath. The plant in Montreal is running at full speed. There are big customers like Kraft-Heinz who have an appetite for their ketchup,” Jean-Sébastien Couillard, vice president of finance at Vancouver-based Lantic Inc., told the Journal.
Multiple requested entities
Investissement Québec, the Department of Business, Innovation and Energy, the Quebec Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and even the Caisse de dépôt et Placement du Quebec are being solicited.
Jean-Sébastien Couillard specifies that Lantic has not yet met with Economy Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon or Investissement Québec CEO Guy LeBlanc.
$160 million project
The Sucre Lantic-CSN Workers’ Union yesterday welcomed the processor’s appetite to modernize its facilities here.
“That would be excellent news, jobs must be created,” said its President Benoît Desrosiers.
Purchase of equipment, infrastructure, buildings… The $65 million loan would be used to fund the $160 million expansion project here.
Remember, Lantic has been a big player in maple syrup processing since acquiring LB Maple Treat for $160.3 million in 2017.
Today, syrup accounts for 20% to 25% of the company’s sales.
In addition to its cane refineries in Montreal and Vancouver, Lantic has a sugar beet processing facility in Alberta. It also has a distribution center and dry blend compounding facility in Toronto.
– With Sylvain Larocque