Just months after cracking the 1,000-employee mark, one of eastern Ontario’s leading manufacturers is showing no signs of slowing down after breaking ground on a multimillion-dollar expansion of its largest plant that’s expected to create dozens of additional jobs.
Ross Video is spending $15 million on the project, which was launched last Thursday and will see the existing facility expanded by 55,000 square feet. The additional space will include two new production lines at the site in Iroquois, about 70 kilometres south of Ottawa on the St. Lawrence River.
The Ontario government is contributing $3 million to the expanded plant, which is expected to create more than 40 new jobs.
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“This event combines our commitment to my hometown of Iroquois, a low-carbon-footprint green facility and a major increase of our manufacturing capacity to serve our growing global customer base,” CEO David Ross said in a statement.
The project was delayed by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But it’s now a go and yet another sign that Ross Video fully intends to maintain its frenzied growth pace.
The company, which has posted 29 consecutive years of revenue growth, has boosted its headcount by 50 per cent over the past four years and expects to hire dozens of additional workers before 2021 is out.
In June, the firm pulled the trigger on its 17th acquisition and officially broke the 1,000-employee barrier.
“When I joined the company 30 years ago, (it) was like 25 employees,” Ross, whose father John founded the firm in the early 1970s, told OBJ. “There is a significance to getting to a thousand. You feel like you’re doing something that customers really believe in. It’s a real validation of what we’re doing.”
