Nova Scotia packaging giant CKF Inc. has installed at its Langley factory new machinery to produce home-compostable and recyclable food packaging that it calls Earthcycle.
The Langley facility employs about 200 people, with the new line prompting the company to hire about 20 new employees, a CKF representative told BIV.
Much of CKF's packaging has long been sold to distribution companies such as Enterprise Paper Co., Bunzl Canada and Imperial Dade Canada. Those companies then resell the CKF-made moulded pulp, PET plastic and styrofoam to farmers and others to put food.
Another part of the privately owned company's business is to make packages of paper plates that Costco Canada would sell on its shelves.
The new machinery is in addition to existing production lines at the Langley factory at 19878 57a Ave.
"Langley's strategic location near major markets in California, the Pacific Northwest, and Western Canada, coupled with access to global trade routes, strengthens our production capabilities," CKF's president Ian Anderson said in a news release.
"It also serves as a hub for further Earthcycle innovation, expanding the product line into new market applications."
He said that the new line in Langley combined with original Earthcycle production facilities in Hantsport, Nova Scotia, makes CKF the largest thermoformed moulded pulp manufacturer for the fruit and vegetable packaging market in the world.
The company today held a ribbon-cutting ceremony that included Anderson alongside politicians such as Langley Mayor Nathan Pachal and B.C.'s Minister of State for Workforce Development Andrew Mercier.
