'The Grove' at the Western Fair District is growing

London, Ont. -

After two years, The Grove at the Western Fair District is expanding its agri-hub with more food-based businesses coming onboard.

In June, The Fritter Shop moved its main operation into the space.

“It’s been great. This space has really allowed us to keep up with production which has always been our biggest issue,” says Owner Kelvin Van Rijn. “It’s allowed us to buy bigger equipment and hire more staff to be able to keep up with what we’re doing.”

The Fritter Shop is among five agri-food businesses in the incubation hub, in what used to be known as the Progress Building.

“The idea of The Grove is to bring small to medium-sized food processing companies and give them a space that they can actually expand, grow, create jobs in the food processing world,” says James Smith, the director of Agri-Food in The Grove. “So we’re kind of filling a gap.”

Reg Ash, the CEO of the Western Fair District says the whole operation is a sign of the times, bringing people and food together.

“For an agricultural society this is what we think we should be doing to promote agri-food and economic development at the same time and ensuring that Canadians have a reliable safe food system."

Right now there’s about 40,000 square feet of space still available in The Grove, and they’re hoping to fill that with about 15 new businesses in the next three years.

“A lot of our partners, one of the requirements is to be agri-food focused but local sustainable of course,” says Smith. “We want to help London and regions around London to kind of create this opportunity where they can get their product out there, give people some variety and this is helping fill that void.”