Sugar and confectionary: NAICS 3113

Overview

Ontario’s sugar and confectionery sector is important as one of its main purposes is to serve as an input for further processing. This sector accounts for over 5% of the food and beverage manufacturing sector’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ^{footnote 1[1]}. The three sugar and confectionery subsectors are:

• chocolate and chocolate confectionery manufacturing
• non-chocolate confectionery manufacturing
• sugar manufacturing

2020 Key indicators

In 2020:

• the sugar and confectionery sector was responsible for $768 million in GDP, which is a decrease of $131 million over the last five years ^{footnote 1[1]}
• there were 191 sugar and confectionery businesses in Ontario, an increase of 7.3% over the last five years ^{footnote 2[2]}
• there were over 4,000 people employed in the sugar and confectionery sector. Employment in this sector has decreased by 945 or 19% over the last five years ^{footnote 3[3]}
• the sugar and confectionery sector was responsible for $2.17 billion in revenue from goods manufactured, which is a 10.1% decline rate over the last five years ^{footnote 4[4]}
• there were $13.1 billion in exports and $21.5 billion of products imported into the province. The United States is our main export market, followed by Mexico and Italy ^{footnote 5[5]}

Ontario at a glance

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

Dare Foods is a Canadian family business that offers a line of non-chocolate confectionery products. Some of their brands include RealFruit®, RealJubes, RealJuicee, RealMint and seasonal offerings such as jellybeans, marshmallows and soft and chewy candies ^{footnote 25[25]}.

Ferrero is an Italian manufacturer of branded chocolate and confectionery products and is the world’s second largest chocolate and confectionery producer in the world. The company’s portfolio includes a diverse selection of specialty products such as Ferrero Rocher, Kinder Chocolate, Nutella, Tic Tacs and more ^{footnote 26[26]}.

Mars Wrigley is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of chocolate, chewing gum, mints and fruity confectionery items. Mars Wrigley’s assortment of brands includes Maltesers, Mars, Snickers, Milky Way and Wrigley ^{footnote 27[27]}.

Mondelez International operates in more than 80 countries and employs over 80,000 individuals. Within Ontario, the company has five manufacturing plants that produce confectionary products such as Cadbury Dairy Milk, Caramilk, Maynards Candy and more ^{footnote 28[28]}.

Nestlé is the world’s largest food and beverage company featuring more than 2,000 brands and offering a wide array of products ranging from global icons to local favourites. In creating products that Canadians know and love such as Coffee Crisp, KitKat and Smarties, the Nestlé brand is known nationally ^{footnote 29[29]}.

Redpath Sugar is Canada’s largest cane sugar refinery that manufactures, markets and sells products made from pure cane sugar to its consumers with a wide offering of sugar types to cater to the many types of usages. Redpath Sugar operates as a subsidiary of American Sugar Refining Inc. ^{footnote 30[30]}.

Highlights and investment activities

In 2017, Mars invested $70 million in its 60,000 ft² expansion of its chocolate manufacturing facility in Newmarket to accommodate the first ever production of Maltesers in North America ^{footnote 31[31]}.

Also in 2017, Ontario further partnered with Ferrero Canada Ltd. to invest up to $11 million in expanding its facilities and diversifying product offerings to boost productivity and create new jobs in Brantford ^{footnote 32[32]}.

In 2019, Mondelez invested $37 million in its Hamilton chocolate facility and $40 million in its Hamilton sugar facility ^{footnote 33[33]}.

In 2021, The Hershey Co. began building a 48,124-square-metre facility in Brantford nearing an $80 million investment which will help create over 100 jobs ^{footnote 34[34]}.

Trends

Trends in this sector include:

• consumers looking for kid-friendly innovations that pivot around simple and natural ingredients to encourage healthy eating ^{footnote 35[35]}
• industry stakeholders expecting that cannabis concentrates through confectionaries could be a very successful category in the near future ^{footnote 36[36]}
• North American consumers seeking for sugar confectionery products to be offered in more convenient resealable packaging ^{footnote 37[37]}
• younger generations being more prone to purchasing holiday-themed confectioneries ^{footnote 37[37]}