QUINTE WEST, Ont. – Great Dane Trailers has announced that it will locate its first Canadian plant in Quinte West, confirming reports that appeared in the June issue of Truck News.

The plant promises to give a real boost to the Eastern Ontario community. Within a year, it will be one of the municipality’s largest employers, second only to CFB Trenton.

The first phase of the plant will stretch over 300,000 square feet, with the capacity to build more than 6,000 trailers per year, and will employ 500 people when it opens for business. It will serve markets across Canada and through the Northeast U.S.

“It’s a very significant addition to our industrial base,” says Quinte West Mayor Jack Arthur. The vast majority of workers will also come from the area, with training offered through nearby Loyalist College of Applied Arts and Technology.

The plant will sit on virgin industrial land southeast of Hwy. 401 and Sidney Street, and will occupy between 65 and 90 acres of space.

Great Dane built more than 57,000 trailers and employed 4,000 people at eight U.S. manufacturing plants in 1999.

Construction is expected to begin later this summer, to be completed by the summer of 2001.

“After an extensive, year-long search for a site, we are extremely pleased to announce that the City of Quinte West (formerly known as Trenton) has been chosen as the location for our first Canadian manufacturing plant,” Great Dane president Phillip Pines said in a release. “While we looked closely at many different sites, we believe that the Quinte West location best meets our strategic and corporate needs.” n