Primo Foods

Sun-Brite Foods Inc., founded in 1973 by Henry and Lina Iacobelli and still run by the family (son John Iacobelli), bought Unico in 1997 and Primo Foods in August 2006, per Sun-Brite's and Primo's own sites and CBC News. Corporations Canada has no federal record for Sun-Brite Foods or Primo Foods, so the entity is likely Ontario-incorporated; the Ontario Business Registry could not be checked.

• +Primo Foods vendor_statement “Its brand names include Unico and Primo”
• PRIMO - Sunbrite Canning Ltd. vendor_statement “In 2006, Sun-Brite Foods Inc. acquired Primo Foods.”
• HISTORY - Sunbrite Canning Ltd. vendor_statement “purchased Unico in 1997 and Primo in August 2006”
• Primo company patriotically wades into Canadian ketchup war | CBC News press “Sun-Brite is the parent company of Primo and Unico brands.”
• A Primo Emery taste press “Sun-Brite and its sister company Unico acquired Primo Foods in August of 2006”

Primo pasta is milled and made at Primo's own plant in Toronto (Emery Village), running since the 1950s; Sun-Brite cans Primo's tomatoes, sauces and beans at its Ruthven, Ontario plant. Rice, tuna and cooking oil, a smaller slice of the catalogue, have no confirmed production site and likely are not made in Canada.

• +Primo Foods vendor_statement “Primo pasta has been manufactured in our plant in Toronto since 1956”
• Kingsville tomato, bean processor to start voluntary, on-site COVID-19 testing | CBC News press “Sun-Brite Foods cans tomatoes, sauces and beans for Primo and Unico.”
• A Primo Emery taste press “Primo continuing to produce its high quality pasta in its northern Toronto facility, here in Emery Village”

Sun-Brite's Ruthven plant employs about 135 full-time and a dozen part-time staff, including five migrant workers from Mexico; Primo also runs a separate plant in Toronto. Both sites are in Ontario, with a small share of seasonal labour from abroad.

• Kingsville tomato, bean processor to start voluntary, on-site COVID-19 testing | CBC News press “Sun-Brite Foods employs approximately 135 full-time and roughly a dozen part-time employees — including five migrant workers from Mexico.”

Tomatoes come from Southern Ontario fields, pasta uses Canadian Amber Durum wheat milled on site, and beans are sourced from Western Canada, all per Primo's own site. Sun-Brite's CEO has said the company imports most of the steel and aluminum cans for its canned lines from the United States.

• +Primo Foods vendor_statement “freshest vine-ripened tomatoes from Ontario fields”
• +Primo Foods vendor_statement “fields across Southern Ontario”
• +Primo Foods vendor_statement “Primo’s high quality beans are sourced from Western Canada”
• +Primo Foods vendor_statement “using the best Canadian Amber Durum wheat that is processed in our very own mill”
• Tariffs could cause cost of canned goods to rise by up to 40 cents a can, food processor warns press “The CEO of Sun-Brite Foods Inc. says the steel and aluminum tariffs could raise the prices of their canned food products between 25 to 40 cents per can.”