Weekly Regional Business Intelligence | | | Written by Kieran Delamont, Associate Editor, London Inc. | | | Andriani set to open first North American production facility on Innovation Drive Italian gluten-free pasta maker Andriani S.p.A. Benefit Corporation is set to cut the ribbon on its $55-million pasta production facility next Wednesday. The 61,225-square-foot facility at 2615 Innovation Drive will make Felicia-brand gluten-free pasta, made from legumes and vegetables, targeting health-conscious North American consumers. “The opening of our first production facility in North America is not just a business milestone, but a crucial step in our journey,” said Michele Andriani, president and CEO. “Here in London, we found the ideal environment to root our values and advance our global vision.” City economic officials have been laudatory of Andriani’s investment. The London Economic Development Corp.’s Kapil Lakhotia called it “exactly the kind of investment that fuels jobs, growth and confidence,” while Mayor Josh Morgan said their presence will “grow our reputation as a hub for agri-food innovation.” The facility is expected to create around 42 jobs. The upshot: Andriani’s new facility is a notable development for London’s food processing industry. The city loves to market itself as an agri-food hub, but a lot of that economic activity is concentrated in regional or national businesses, with a few breakout successes like Nuts For Cheese. Andriani’s commitment represents one of the biggest foreign investments here since the 2014 opening of the Dr. Oetker plant. “London, Ontario, offered all of the right conditions to anchor the next phase of our international development,” said plant general manager, Carlo Stocco. “A strong talent pool with specialized skills, a vibrant ecosystem dedicated to agri-food innovation, and a clear focus on sustainability and competitiveness.” Read more: Andriani | | | Western International College established on former Brescia campus Western’s at-times-controversial partnership with Australian education company Navitas is set formally launch next May. Called Western International College — or WesternIC — the new college will be setting up shop on the former Brescia campus, with the first students expected to arrive in May 2026 and recruitment efforts already underway. While the whole partnership has elicited some concern from faculty unions, the university administration is pitching it as a move to better attract global talent and increase its international student population. “As a global university, Western attracts students and researchers from around the world who bring their unique perspectives and experiences,” said university president Alan Shepard. “That diversity makes our teaching, learning, research and innovation stronger.” The upshot: Pathway colleges are not new arrangements — as advocates for this partnership have noted, Navitas has been working with other Canadian post-secondary institutions since the early 2000s. However, all of those schools are smaller, undergraduate-focused universities; large Canadian research universities (think, McGill, U of T, UBC) have avoided these kinds of partnerships, so Western will be the first major research institution to explore this business model. It’s also set to be the first Navitas collaboration in North America to offer pathways into professional master’s programs. While other post-secondary institutions are reeling following international student caps, Western is hoping to double the proportion of international students in its population; right now, about 7.5 per cent of the undergrad student body are international students, and Western wants to take that to 15 per cent by the 2033-34 school year. Read more: Western News | | | EpiSign Inc. launches cloud-based platform METRIC London-based biotech startup EpiSign, a partnered venture between London Health Sciences Centre and Dr. Bekim Sadikovic (pictured), announced it was launching METRIC, a cloud-based software platform that (to simplify things quite a bit) uses AI to diagnose genetic disorders from blood tests. “By bringing validated episignature interpretation to the point of care, EpiSign METRIC shortens the path from sample to clinical insight — empowering partners to deliver faster, more confident answers for families,” said Dan Sinai, president and CEO of EpiSign. EpiSign chief scientific officer, Dr. Sadikovic, said, “the platform applies reference-based models to patient methylation profiles, matching them against validated episignatures and generating standardized, clinician-friendly reports.” Currently, EpiSign METRIC can screen for 200 different disorders; the company says it wants to grow that to 1,000 over the next five years. The company says that technology like this “has the potential to lead to health system cost savings since many patients spend years and even decades being tested to rule out other potential diseases with similar symptoms.” The upshot: What’s particularly noteworthy here is that EpiSign is now bringing to market more than a decade of research into using machine learning to diagnose rare genetic disorders. In that sense, it’s doing what these kinds of partnership ventures at research institutions are meant to do, by translating research into a scalable product. The technology has already shown the capacity for groundbreaking discoveries — a couple years ago, researchers used EpiSign to diagnose prenatal diseases for the first time. The company has high hopes that the commercialization of this research will improve diagnoses of rare disorders, and that their first-mover advantage will make them the go-to provider of this technology. “Reaching an early and accurate diagnosis can be lifechanging,” said Dr. Sadikovic. “This is a major breakthrough that allows physicians to provide earlier and more accurate diagnosis, resulting in improved disease management.” Read more: Newswire | | | Kaplansky-pitched student development gets frosty reception Arnon Kaplansky, the developer who infamously built the three silo-esque homes colloquially known as the Towers of Spite, has put forth a new proposal for a 21-storey apartment tower at the corner of Richmond and Epworth streets (architectural renderings pictured). “This location is very important in London, because it’s the gateway to the university,” Kaplansky said, explaining why the tower would be called The Gateway. “I believe that this building will help bring back single-family houses to regular families and not students. By concentrating students in that block, it will help the rest of the neighbourhood.” Area ward councillor Sam Trosow is calling the proposal “unrealistic”, “premature” and “nowhere near close to what is feasible.” The Broughdale Community Association’s Susan Bentley said it knew there was going to be a proposal brought forward but didn’t know it would be a 21-storey tower; she called it “a bit of a shock.” The application will go before the planning committee in early December. The upshot: It’s yet another controversial, possibly antagonist, proposal from Kaplansky in this area. The population of this building would be rather large — Kaplansky says that the building would have 119 units, all of them two- to four-bedroom units for shared accommodation, “which is the new trend because of the cost of housing and the economic traffic jam here.” Councillor Trosow is worried about the traffic traffic jam, though. “There’s already a bottleneck at that intersection,” he said. “There’s going to be a worse bottleneck at that intersection when the dormitory comes into operation, and there’s going to be a much worse bottleneck at that intersection if we increase the capacity of the subject property,” he said, referencing the eight-story Western dorm currently being construced on University Drive. “I think it’s a disaster and safety hazard waiting to happen.” Despite this, Kaplansky plans to forge on. “It’s the same argument all the time,” he said. “It’s too tall, it’s too high, it’s too dense, it’s too many students. I’m pretty sure the councillor in the area will oppose it, but hopefully the rest of council will see the value in it.” Read more: CBC News London | | | London rom-com production gets nod from Bell Five TV1 Okay, so you can’t believe that Belly wound up with Conrad, and now you’re searching for your next romantic binge? Give a thought to upcoming local production Love in All the Small Places, a five-part web series from London, about London, which just got picked up by Bell Fibe TV1. Written and directed by local actor, writer and producer Sarah Cleveland (who also stars in the show), it chronicles the trials and tribulations of a 40-something woman (Sasha) in the world of online dating. “A lot of my friends are having their second life now with divorce, new relationships and online dating, which didn’t even exist 20 years ago,” Cleveland (pictured) told The London Free Press. “I wanted to write some of those stories, and that’s where the series came from.” Filming will take place at several recognizable spots, including Covent Garden Market, where Sasha’s character sells baked goods, along with restaurants and neighbourhood hubs across the east end, West 5 and downtown. “London is a beautiful city – that’s so diverse and filled with so many different things, architecture, history and new places like the Hard Rock Hotel,” Cleveland said. “It’s a great place to set the stage for a dating story.” The upshot: It will be fun to see which businesses show up in the production. “We are shooting in London, about London, using actual London businesses,” Cleveland said. “It’s nice to film something and pretend it’s New York, but I want people to see real cities, especially in Canada.” Cleveland said she plans to utilize Fanshawe students on the production as a form of training, plus a fully Ontario-based crew. It makes a fun pair with the other London production picked up by Bell, 18 to 35, which is all about the travellers who show up here thinking they’re in England. “I’m also looking forward to people seeing London, Ontario, as a filming location,” Cleveland added. The show is expected to be released by spring 2026. Read more: London Free Press | | | Feds and city make additional investment in Vision SoHo The federal and municipal governments are chipping in more than $11 million toward Indwell’s plan to turn the War Memorial Children’s Hospital into affordable housing. The project, called the Hilda Steward Lofts, will see 42 “deeply affordable” housing units created on the site, which is part of the larger Vision SoHo project. The federal government is contributing $8.6 million, plus another $120,000 from the CMHC, while the city is kicking in $2.6 million “This project is a vital step toward providing affordable rental housing for those who need it most in London,” said London West MP Arielle Kayabaga. Mayor Morgan said “this important investment is another example of the strong collaborative relationships our city has fostered across governments,” and added “this support for Indwell, for supportive housing right here in SoHo, is going to be transformative for the individuals who get to come into that space.” The upshot: There’s nothing really new here, besides the injection of federal and municipal money to support the project. Indwell has been working on this building for several years already, including raising $3 million in community fundraising to support it. Construction has been a challenge, as you might expect when dealing with an old building like this — in 2023, Indwell had to go to the city for an extra $2 million to deal with added costs of clearing old debris off the site, and the initial 2025 opening target was pushed back to 2024. Also in 2023, Indwell got into knots with the CMHC when it rejected a $13.5-million grant application. So, to say this particular portion of the Vision SoHo project has been tough to get over the finish line would be an understatement, and this week’s funding announcement may be more about shoring up the initial investments. Read more: London Free Press | Newswire | | | Dispatch: October 17, 2025 A summary of recent business appointments and announcements, plus event listings for the upcoming week. View listings here | | | | |