Sensient invests $500k in Kingston plant

Sensient Technologies is expanding their investment in their Kingston, Ont., site on River Street to the tune of $500,000.

The plant has existed in some capacity in Kingston for over 100 years, with Sensient purchasing the plant from its predecessor – Canada Dye.

At that time, Canada Dye primarily used the site to provide colour for production at the Davis Tannery, before moving more towards food colouring in the fifties and sixties.

Today, Sensient produces both food and beverage colouring and flavouring products, cosmetic ingredients, and pharmaceutical excipients.

The Kingston location is now focused primarily on natural food colouring products, and while the site once only produced to meet the demand of Canadian markets, it is now a considerable source of production for American and European customers.

In a news release, Sensient said the investment will allow the Kingston location, which produces primarily small liquid food colouring products, to increase total liquid volume by 25 per cent over the next year.

President Mike Geraghty says in the release that the company will use automation to help improve a site that is already efficient.

“We are committed to investing in cutting-edge technologies that allow us to provide food and beverage manufacturers with solutions and services that enable them to meet consumer expectations without compromise,” Geraghty said. “Through the investment of the state-of-the-art automated processing equipment, we will be able handle higher production volumes and improve efficiencies. This investment will make our Kingston facility even more competitive for the long-term.”

The Kingston location currently employs 36 people, and while eventually this investment should lead to more jobs in Kingston, Sensient’s marketing director David Rigg said that the biggest benefit from a workforce perspective is making the existing jobs more attractive.

While the Kingston site already punches above its weight, it’s workforce is dwarfed by the company’s main plant in St. Louis, which employs around 400 people. Rigg said the Kingston plant will become an even bigger part of Sensient’s manufacturing process with this investment.

“It’s going to be higher quality, higher paying jobs that are going to be the result of that rather than a mass increase in employment,” Rigg said. “The productivity that’s going to be generated from this investment is going to be great. So it ensures not only that Kingston continues, but actually that it becomes a more important, bigger part of the Sensient manufacturing footprint.”

With increased production, Rigg said more people will be hired over time in order to manage the increase.

While part of Kingston’s appeal is simply based on geography – tucked squarely between Montreal and Toronto and within reach of New York – Rigg said there also seems to be a good supply of skilled labour in the area.

He emphasized that it is the plant’s efficiency that has made it such a central part of Sensient’s manufacturing, and why it made sense to focus attention and resources on a relatively small plant.

“This particular production line makes small liquid packages very, very efficiently,” Rigg said.  “We can increase our throughput by about eight times what we could do before, and it makes Kingston the most efficient plant in our North American network in terms of producing small liquid packaging.”

In the news release, Kingston Economic Development Corporation CEO Donna Gillespie said Sensient is helping to promote growth in the Kingston economy with this investment, and showing that Kingston is an attractive location for companies to operate manufacturing businesses.

“Sensient continues to play a key role in shaping Kingston’s economic growth,” Gillespie said. “We are thrilled to see their continuous growth and expansion in Kingston.  Their investment in automation equipment not only enhances their factory output, but also reaffirms that Kingston is an excellent location for sustainable manufacturing. Sensient’s continued investments creates and sustains jobs in our city, helping our community to grow and thrive.”

A ribbon cutting ceremony was held on Tuesday morning in Kingston to unveil the new production line, which will be used by the production team immediately.