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Islands West Produce opens 50,000 square-foot facility in Saanich

130 staff work at distribution facility in Saanich
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The new Islands West Produce building on Douglas Street is now open and operational in Saanich’s North Quadra neighbourhood.

About 130 staff work at the distribution facility, which is just about 50,000 square feet in size.

Hundreds of guests were fed from a buffet on Wednesday as the Fatt brothers themselves, Ian and Wayne (inset photo), toured people around the facility.

There are seven loading bays handling 25 scheduled truck departures each day, delivering food across Vancouver Island as well as the Lower Mainland six days per week, said Rick Silver of Islands West.

Islands West has been on the site for more than 100 years. Its bigger clients include many retail, with hundreds of contract providing food service to restaurants, care homes, hospitals, military, the University of Victoria, B.C. Ferries, and more.

“We are excited about the artifacts we found, we’re going to keep them in the boardroom, calling it ‘the museum,’” Silver said. “It shows the history of this place, that it was a farm long before it became a distribution company.”

The new facility was the design of the brothers who embarked on a five-year process to develop the family property back in 2011. The process also rezoned a portion of the former property to develop 33 townhouses and eight single family homes next to the new facility.

See: Sign at Islands West gate on Dieppe Road criticizes Saanich’s slow city process

The new building continues a legacy with the Fatt family farming history there.

reporter@saanichnews.com


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Looking down two floors inside the new 50,000 square-feet Islands West Produce facility on Douglas Street in the North Quadra neighbourhood. Travis Paterson/News Staff
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