A new investment was just confirmed in Saint-Hyacinthe’s agri-food sector. Today, Industrie Gastronomique Cascajares announced the details of a project, starting in the next few weeks, to increase its production surface area in the Édouard-Brochu pavilion owned by Saint-Hyacinthe Technopole.
The company will be investing nearly $725,000 to expand its facilities into an unoccupied adjacent space of slightly over 2,200 square feet. The extra space will allow Cascajares to set up an additional kitchen area to produce a new line of ready-made meals.
The expansion and new configuration will also help the company better manage its internal flow of products and increase its capacity to cook, prepare and chill its current product line in order to meet growing demand. The project will create five new jobs once the work is completed and a dozen more over the medium term, bringing the total number of employees to over 40. The work should be completed in September.
Alfonso Jimenez, the president of Cascajares (whose head office is in Spain), had this to say: “We consider Canada a strategic and priority market for the group’s future. That’s why we’ve decided to continue investing, not only in our production capacity and industrial equipment, but also in human resources, to strengthen our Canadian team and continue to be a leader and reference for innovation in our sector.”
In Saint-Hyacinthe since 2009, Cascajares chose this location for its North American activities due to a contact established through one of Saint-Hyacinthe Technopole’s international partnerships. In 2011, the Technopole invested some $3M to expand the Édouard-Brochu pavilion of its business development complex so that Cascajares could carry out its activities in its own, more modern plant. As part of the newly announced project, Saint-Hyacinthe Technopole will be investing a little over $50,000 to adapt its build.
“Industrie Gastronomique Cascajares perfectly illustrates the role the City of Biotechnology and its welcome infrastructures play in economic development. The company started in one of the technological park’s business incubators (the CRDA), before moving to this quality industrial space that we placed at its disposal and is now being expanded. This is the typical progression of businesses developing in the technological park’s ecosystem. We are proud of this success and of playing a key role in it,” said André Barnabé, general manager of Saint-Hyacinthe Technopole.
Industrie Gastronomique Cascajares specializes in meat dishes cooked sous vide for long periods at low temperature, based on extensive expertise the company developed in Spain. In addition to its Chef Brigade line created for food service professionals, it prepares and markets several ready-to-eat products for the general public under store brands, but also under its Le Chef et moi brand, which has won several awards for its quality products.
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