Hammond Manufacturing is first to buy into Fergus Business Park

FERGUS – The Township of Centre Wellington has announced a Guelph-based electrical product manufacturer as the first new property owner at the Fergus Business Park. 

Hammond Manufacturing Company will be building a large manufacturing plant at the Fergus Business Park off First Line in Fergus’ north east end, a crowd heard at an official announcement Thursday morning. 

The company bought 11.5 acres of land within the business park to build a plant that makes electrical enclosures, Hammond Manufacturing executive vice-president Alex Stirling said, and it will allow them room to expand in the future. 

Hammond was founded in Guelph over 100 years ago and is headquartered there with manufacturing plants too but also has facilities in Waterloo, Aberfoyle, Buffalo, the UK and other places internationally. 

Stirling and Rob Villapiana, Hammond operations manager, said they are proud to be local. 

“We wanted something local, there’s a lot of talent that we have that we want to utilize,” Stirling said in an interview. “Serviced land is really hard to find and we were excited when we heard this was coming up.”

Stirling said this will not mean any closures at other plants. The building size is unknown at this point but Stirling figured this new facility will bring over 100 new jobs to the area including general labourers, welders, electricians, millwrights and more. 

He said the aim was for the facility to be operating by 2026.

The Fergus Business Park was first bought in 2020 and is made up of 45 acres of serviced land going for $450,000 per acre. 

George Borovilos, Centre Wellington economic development manager, said he expects this announcement will create a domino effect and bring interest from others including from companies in the Greater Toronto Area where land is hard to come by.

“It creates the impetus and stimulating opportunity for new growth and a new company,” Borovilos said. “To see manufacturing stay in Canada is even more exciting.”

Borovilos said originally the business park was envisioned to focus on customized smaller lots but found the investment was too large for the smaller companies who initially showed interest. 

“I’m going to start focusing on getting an industrial mall developer,” Borovilos said. “We’re in need of someone to develop a nice industrial mall to help some of our local companies grow and expand.”

Mayor Shawn Watters in his speech to the crowd thanked past councils and mayors for championing this business park as he sees it as vital to Fergus’ growth. 

“These opportunities that come along, they don’t come often but when they do we need to embrace it,” Watters said. “We’re looking at over 100 employees … that’s terribly exciting for our community and opportunity for our community in terms of potential employment.”

“It gives us something that we were missing, local jobs for people to live and work locally,” added Neil Dunsmore, former councillor and chair of the economic prosperity and growth advisory committee. “It’s better for the environment and it’s better for our sense of community.”