Some big changes are in store for a box factory in Kitchener’s south end.
Last month, Boehmer Box was purchased by Pennsylvania-based Paperworks Industries Inc.
The new owners plan to spend $11 million on the Trillium Drive plant, to increase its output by as much as 75 per cent – and that’s not all.
“We’ll be hiring up to 150 people,” Boehmer Box president Terry Macleod said in an interview.
It’s a big change from nine years ago, when Boehmer Box filed for bankruptcy protection.
Macleod credits the turnaround to the 290 men and women currently working at the company.
“It’s absolutely an endorsement of the employees,” he said.
Currently, Boehmer produces 2.2 million cartons for the food, beverage and pharmaceutical industries each day.
Macleod says the $11 million will be used to create a better printing process than any of its competitors in Ontario currently employ, and to automate the gluing side of the operation.
Art Sinclair, the vice-president of the Greater Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber of Commerce, says the expansion can be considered a “major investment” from a “major company.”
“We have to make these investments in the machinery and equipment if we want to be competitive on a global level,” he said.
There are currently 290 people working at Boehmer Box.
