B.C. premier visits Kelowna soda producer to announce millions for other manufacturers – Okanagan

B.C. Premier David Eby has announced nearly $7 million in funding for several manufacturers across the Interior.

“This is an incredibly unstable and challenging time globally and certainly British Columbians are feeling that,” Eby said while making the announcement in Kelowna Wednesday.

“One of the key responses that we’ve had as a province to the challenges that we face globally and nationally is to find ways to create jobs and opportunity here in the province that are resilient to outside shocks.”

The four manufacturers include Good Way Homes in Malakwa, which builds prefabricated homes; Dinoflex in Salmon Arm, which produces recycled rubber flooring; Penticton-based Kinetic Custom Trailers, which manufactures custom heavy-duty industrial trailers; and Mako Wood Furniture, a Surrey company building a new facility in Merritt.

“By creating opportunities to get more value out of the resources we can produce here, we’ll be creating opportunities for all British Columbians,” Eby said.

Eby made the announcement at Farming Karma Fruit Company, which produces sparkling fruit soda.

The farming operation has seen tremendous growth over the past year since it received $2 million in funding last year.

“We were able to really accelerate our growth and almost double our beverage production, and it’s still going up,” said Binny Boparai-Gill, co-founder and president of Farming Karma.

The money is part of the province’s $180 million B.C. Manufacturing Jobs Fund for companies meeting certain criteria.

“The quality of jobs that it creates, the additional economic investments that we can see come to the region,” said Ravi Kahlon, B.C.’s minister of jobs and economic growth.”As well as how does it align with our Look West Economic Strategy around making sure that British Columbia is resilient, that British Columbia is strong.”

In Farming Karma’s case, the funding allowed the family-owned business to create 20 additional jobs in the past year and purchase more advanced equipment to ramp up production.

“Right now, we’re producing over five million cans a year, whereas before, it was less than half of that,”  Boparai-Gill said. “But the current equipment that we have, it can actually produce up to 20 times the volume we originally used to produce, so there’s lots of room for growth.”

The company is now getting its product into major retailers, including Walmart and Costco and continuously tapping into new markets across the country.

“We really should be always looking at local manufacturing, because it keeps the dollars within B.C., within Canada,” Boparai-Gill said.

According to Eby, the $7 million investment is expected to create about 100 new jobs.

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