A new chapter has begun at a location with a rich and vibrant history in Belleville.
Yesterday, they held a ribbon cutting for the new Ya YA Foods Belleville/Truss Beverage Co location at 540 College St. E.
That address will be known to many long-term area residents as the location of the former Sears Warehouse in the industrial park.
It’s exciting to see this location being put to greater use, as it has gone through a few changes over the past decade. They already have close to 100 people working on site of their packaging and beverage production facility, with the potential over the next few years to reach 3-400 jobs in total.
We haven’t seen numbers like that for years.
Close to 1,000 people worked at the Sears Warehouse and Call Centre before the Call Centre Closed in 2014, and the warehouse followed suit a few years later.
It was a devastating blow to the city, its workforce and the local economy.
Staff at City Hall have been working hard for years to attract new industry and make use of the locations they already had (like this one), and it’s great to see modern production facilities and new industries regularly popping up in east end Belleville.
The days of Sears (and Nortel) are over, but thanks to companies like Ya YA Foods, the local employment scene has many bright new lights on the city’s horizon.
I’m Paul Martin and that’s what I see looking Beyond the Headlines.
