Soft drink and ice manufacturing: NAICS 31211

Overview

Ontario’s soft drink and ice manufacturing sector is integral to the beverage industry in Ontario, accounting for 4% of the food and beverage manufacturing Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ^{footnote 1[1]}.

2020 Key indicators

In 2020:

• the soft drink and ice manufacturing sector was responsible for $676 million in GDP, which is a decrease of $4 million over the last five years ^{footnote 1[1]}
• there were 94 soft drink and ice manufacturing businesses in Ontario, a decrease of 13% over the last 5 years ^{footnote 2[2]}
• there were over 8,900 people employed in the soft drink and ice manufacturing sector. Employment in this sector has increased by 2,005 or 29% over the last five years ^{footnote 3[3]}
• there were $179 million in exports and $640 million of products imported into the province. The United States is our main export market, followed by the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom ^{footnote 5[5]}

Ontario at a glance

Ontario is home to many multinational companies, medium, and small enterprises.

Blue Triton consists of the former United States and Canadian operations of Nestlé Waters. The company offers a portfolio of water brands for healthy hydration, including Poland Spring® Brand 100% Natural Spring Water, Splash and Pure Life®. Blue Triton also owns and operates ReadyRefresh®, which is a customizable water and beverage delivery service. They operate a bottling plant and distribution centre in Ontario and have three other facilities in Canada ^{footnote 88[88]}.

Coca-Cola arrived in Ontario close to 125 years ago in 1896. Today, they offer more than 250 drinks across 38 brands in Canada. Coca-Cola is recognized as a market share leader in the soft drink market across its portfolio of brands that includes, Coca-Cola, Sprite and Gold Peak among others. The Coca-Cola company employs approximately 6,400 people in more than 50 facilities across Canada, including six production facilities ^{footnote 89[89]}.

Flow, founded by Canadian entrepreneur Nicholas Reichenbach in 2015, packages naturally alkaline spring water from a local and sustainable source. Flow also co-packs low- and high-acid products ranging from sports drinks to nutritional drinks, performance drinks and weight-loss beverages. Flow has a 110,000 ft² building in Aurora that can accommodate large production runs and have the capabilities to run small scale pilot trials ^{footnote 90[90]}.

Ice River Springs is a family-run Canadian bottled water company that takes on integral sustainable solutions in sourcing its water from natural springs across the company. Ice River Springs is Canada’s largest independent water bottling company and has six plants in Canada, along with 200 employees ^{footnote 91[91]}.

PepsiCo Beverages Canada is a leader in the Ontario beverage industry and markets a variety of beverages under Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, 7UP, Mountain Dew, Mug, Aquafina, SoBe, Lipton and Brisk, Amp Energy, Starbucks, Gatorade, Tropicana, Dole and Naked Juice. PepsiCo Beverages Canada has six manufacturing facilities across the country, employing 11,000 people and accounting for 88% of the PepsiCo volume sold in Canada ^{footnote 73[73]}.

Highlights and investment activities

Ice River Springs uses recycled plastic to reduce energy needed to make one bottle by approximately 70%. By producing green water bottles from recycled plastic bottles, the company has diverted $5 million pounds of plastic from landfills annually ^{footnote 92[92]}.

In December 2020, Coca-Cola has recently invested $30 million in their manufacturing facilities in Weston and Brampton, to improve efficiency and meet the demand for more product innovation ^{footnote 93[93]}. Both Coca-Cola and PepsiCo have published and made strong commitments to sustainability initiatives for their brands ^{footnote 94[94]}.

Trends

Trends in this sector include:

• flavour experimentation being paramount to drinking experiences as many adults are keen in trying limited-edition flavours ^{footnote 95[95]}
• consumers wanting soda brands to take an exciting and bold approach to flavour innovation in 2021 ^{footnote 95[95]}
• young adults being engaged with health benefits from soft drinks and being interested in trying a functional carbonated soft drink ^{footnote 95[95]}