(photo provided by Lesya Chapman, Chapman’s Ice Cream)
Chapman’s Ice Cream is looking to expand its operations, and is requesting support from Grey Highlands council.
Council approved requesting a report from staff after hearing from Chapman’s Chief Operating Officer Ashley Chapman and Vice President of Operations Joe Jacobs during a meeting on Nov. 20 about the expansion.
Chapman says the planned 175,000 square-foot expansion will open up several new employment opportunities.
“We are expecting to be employing full-time approximately 150 to 200 additional employees at Chapman’s. A lot of these positions will be higher level positions in the sense that we are using more technology and more advanced technology than we have ever done before,” says Chapman.
He adds the expansion will make the Chapman’s Ice Cream factory in Markdale the largest single-site ice cream manufacturer in North America for a time.
“One of the most important things of course is to make sure we have everything we need, and what do we need from council? We need additional capacity,” says Chapman.
He explained with the new expansion, the company will need additional capacity for wastewater flow to the Markdale lagoon, as well as an increase to the water supplied to Chapman’s.
He says the expansion would need an additional 225 cubic meters of water flow a day. This is on top of the 140 cubic meters of wastewater flow a day.
Deputy Mayor Dane Nielsen says he is favour of supporting the ice cream company and requested a report from staff on the water and wastewater ask from Chapman’s.
“It’s exciting to see the expansion of Chapman’s,” says Nielsen. “We are working on the expansion of the lagoon, we are going through the environmental studies so there is a plan on that one, but lets get a staff report so we can be open with the residents.”
The goal is to get the expansion running in the first quarter of 2026.