Dainty Foods investment aims to 'double' workforce

Dainty Foods is looking to “double” its Windsor workforce with a multi-year, multi-million dollar investment

Sixty-five people work for the rice factory on the city’s west end.

“We are Canada's only rice mill actually,” said Alban Panolli, chief financial officer for Dainty Foods which has been in business since 1882.

First launched in Montreal, Que. the company moved to Windsor in 1967.

Panolli says the location is “great” because of its proximity to the American border, the rail access for shipping in rice and the local workforce.

“The labor force is really great in Windsor,” said Panolli. “We've had many good employees and we look forward to expanding that.”

Panolli says over the next two to three years they hope to add as many as 50 new employees to the factory through a multi-year, multi-million dollar investment in the Windsor operation.

The company has already invested $10 million in the factory upgrading the rice mill, the flour mill and enhancing their packaging lines.

Panolli said they are planning to spend an addition $10 million over the next two to three years.

“This is something we're really excited about,” said Panolli. “This will be bringing specialized equipment into the current facility in order to help us produce microwaveable rice pouches for our consumers.”

It’s on the heels of the recent launch of a new line of gluten-free rice flours.

Stella Lecoure is the product developer for Dainty Foods, tasked with using the flour to make recipes that taste more like traditional wheat-based flours.

“Why does anybody want to live without cupcakes?” Lecoure said Wednesday, adding she tested “thousands” of cupcakes before landing on the right recipe.

She and her team — including co-op students from local high schools — developed the packaging needed to sell the new flour.

“You need to formulate the product correctly,” said Lecoure. “And then you also need to make sure that the packaging is eye catching so that when they’re (consumers) in the supermarket, they actually want to take the product to test it out.”

Kevin Mailloux, operations manager for Dainty Foods, will now be tasked with moving some of their production lines inside the factory to make way for the next investments.

Mailloux said the factory is already pumping out 30-40,000 metric tones of rice every year.

“We (fill) anywhere from 14 to 17 transport trucks everyday,” said Mailloux.

Mailloux says they are already starting the hiring process, through online employment services like LinkedIn and Indeed, to get ready for when the next wave of investment is spent.

“That's the best part about our launch next year,” said Mailloux. “We have the people, we are integrating them now, so when it does come in, we're ready to go.”