Ontario Export Awards finalist profile: Thomas Canning
by Canadian Manufacturing Staff
Thomas Canning was named a finalist for the Food, Beverage & Agriculture award at the 2014 Ontario Export Awards
Location: Maidstone, Ont.
Year Established: 1939
Company Description: Thomas Canning Ltd. is the only organic tomato processor in Canada, and its Utopia Brand is experiencing strong sales in Canada and the United States.
It has continued to expand by establishing export agreements in China and Nigeria.
Utopia has spent four years building these international relationships to lay the foundation for further export agreements.
Top Export Markets: the United States, Trinidad and Tobago, China, Nigeria
Finalist Bona Fides: By building a new processing plant, Utopia will be able to fulfill the export agreement recently signed with the Festrut Group of Nigeria worth $25 million, as well as continue to grow sales in China.
Utopia staff has spent the past four years cultivating these international relationships by laying the foundation for long-term business opportunity.
Thomas Canning’s recent expansion in export markets has increased demand for tomatoes, which has created not only processing jobs but also kept many of the tomato farmers in business who have been growing for generations.
