On Friday, July 11, the province chipped in with the multi-million dollar loan as part of its $500-million Advanced Manufacturing Investment Strategy.

Jim Bradley, MPP for St. Catharines, made the announcement on behalf of Sandra Pupatello, Minister of Economic Development and Trade, who is currently in France.

Calling Stanpac "Smithville's success story," Bradley said the business is clearly on the right track to growth and is now positioned for even greater success.

"This is good news, not only for the community, but for the region and province as well," he told the crowd assembled in the Industrial Park plant.

The Smithville packaging business acquired a large amount of equipment from Solo Cup, a U.S.-based competitor in March. Since then, plans have been laid to double the current employee count to 200 and add a sister facility in Texas, with a total expansion price tag of $18-million over the next five years.

The new investment is aimed at boosting innovation and job creation at Stanpac Inc. The business will use the loan to expand its operations in the ice-cream packaging division.

"The funds will allow us to diversify our product range," explained company president Steve Witt. "This is exactly what Stanpac needs, at exactly the right time. This will ensure Stanpac can compete at a global level."

Currently, the company holds several patents around the world. The company's new technology will help reduce the number of steps and the amount of energy used in the packaging process.

Mayor Katie Trombetta congratulated Witt, then thanked the company for its continual charitable flavour.

"Without Stanpac, a lot of the things we're thankful for, the fairs and PoultryFest, wouldn't be possible," she said.

Bradley added that Stanpac is currently working on creating "ingenius" tamper-evident seals for the ice wine industry.

Known for its innovation, the company is currently working with Kodak on an anti-counterfeiting system. Stanpac demonstrated the Kodak Traceless System for anti-counterfeiting in Niagara-on-the-Lake in May.