There is a promise of jobs to come as a new company sets up shop in Watford bringing new life to an historic plant.

BCFoods is setting up shop in the industrial building with historic roots in the village.

The global food ingredients supplier which specializes in dehydrated vegetables, herbs, spices, fruits, custom blends, and seasonings is setting up shop in the former Androck building.

Androck was a wire product company which opened in 1906 and changed hands a number of times. The plant was replaced with a one story structure in the 1950s.

In 2006 the plant was closed by Newell Industries of Illinois.

Mike Bray, the company’s North American president, says Watford was chosen as the company’s first Canadian location because it is close to major transportation routes and two hours from Toronto. It will serve as a distribution centre first but has room for production as well.

“We’re thrilled to be opening this new facility, which represents a major investment in the future of our company. With this new facility, we’ll be able to offer our Canadian customers a more local distribution site with regional sales support while also helping to reduce costs and our greenhouse gas emissions by lowering our overall transportation mileage by bringing material directly into Canada vs. our Bolingbrook, IL factory.”

Bray added this will create new jobs in the local community, with positions including production line workers, operations support and quality control technicians.

“BCFoods is committed to hiring locally and providing opportunities for growth and advancement within the company.”

BCFoods’ head offices are in Santa Rosa, CA, and Bolingbrook, IL and it operates production facilities in China and maintains logistics operations in Europe and India.