Weekly Regional Business Intelligence | | | Written by Kieran Delamont, Associate Editor, London Inc. | | | No Frills to debut new-look store in Kilworth Heights London — okay, Komoka — is getting the country’s first redesigned No Frills grocery store, part of Loblaw Companies’ big expansion plans to roll out flashier, sleeker new budget grocery stores. “We’re putting the finishing touches on something special, the first No Frills store with our new look and feel,” said Loblaw’s president Per Bank on LinkedIn, speaking about the new No Frills set to open soon in Komoka at the Crestview Crossings plaza in Kilworth Heights West. “It’s always impressive to see how much work goes into bringing a store to life.” It’s part of a plaza being developed by Litera Group and Tridon Group, which will also include a new Shoppers Drug Mart. “Komoka and Kilworth continue to grow, and this plaza will bring much-needed amenities to the area,” said Don De Jong, principal at Tridon Group. The new store concept is part of Loblaw’s wider push to invest $2.4 billion this year to open up to 70 new stores, many of them discount brands like No Frills or Maxi. The upshot: To some extent, London is playing its traditional role as a good testing ground for new concepts, although a fancy No Frills in a booming suburban area is pretty comfortable territory. Less clear is exactly how consumers are going to react to Loblaw’s new strategic direction, focused more on the “hard discount stores” that they’re investing in — the fancy new No Frills design has been the object of some ridicule online since it was announced and previewed earlier this year. “That No Frills store looks like a frill,” one social media user commented, while others poked fun at a mock-up that included a Porsche in the parking lot. On a recent earnings call, though, Loblaw CFO Richard Dufresne said that “momentum continues to build across the hard discount stores we added to our network through conversions and new builds, proving that our strategy is resonating very well with Canadians.” Read more: Supermarket News | LinkedIn | | | IMT Precision in Ingersoll lands $305M defence contract to produce artillery shells Ingersoll’s IMT Precision is getting up to $305 million from the federal government to build a new manufacturing facility, producing metal shells for artillery weapons. Federal Defence Minister David McGuinty (pictured, at podium) made the announcement Wednesday at the company’s facility. It’s part of a broader $1.4-billion defence industry resilience program aimed at expanding Canadian munitions production, which is itself part of a broader push from the feds to boost the defence sector with as much as $35 billion in new spending. They picked a firm with good Canadian history: IMT Precision has been making shell casings since the First World War and currently employs around 500 people. The new facility will be ready for production in roughly two and a half years, the company said, and reach full capacity in four, at which point it will be capable of producing around 144,000 shells a year (although the company hasn’t landed on a site yet). CEO Cheryl Hacking told The London Free Press the company has heard clearly that “artillery and munitions production needs bolstering and fast,” calling it “not just a manufacturing problem, but a national security problem Canadian companies can solve.” MP Arielle Kayabaga added, “I believe in our Southwestern Ontario future, our manufacturing future and the defence sector and the work this region can provide to keep us safe. Our government is serious about the work Southwestern Ontario has to do.” The upshot: Significant, obviously, that McGuinty made the announcement where he did in Ingersoll, still reeling from layoffs at the GM CAMI plant — he says the new facility could eventually support up to 400 jobs, which is certainly a significant number for a town that lost more than 1,100 of them when GM wound down BrightDrop production last year. McGuinty did not mention the prospect of converting the CAMI plant to manufacture military vehicles, though he noted the government is in broader talks with automakers about converting auto facilities to defence production. There’s some longer-term thinking at play here as the region’s auto sector is continuing to erode, and Ottawa is betting/hoping defence manufacturing can fill some of the gap that is left — although a deal to convert an auto plant to a major defence facility remains elusive. “In today’s world, security cannot be taken for granted. Our geography will no longer protect us,” McGuinty said. “The ability to produce our own munitions is not optional, it is essential. It strengthens our independence and protects us from global supply disruptions.” Read more: London Free Press | CBC News London | | | More program cuts at Fanshawe Fanshawe announced nine more program cuts at the end of last week, bringing the total to nearly 60 programs cut or suspended as it tries to rein in its deficit problem. Among the programs now being permanently suspended are the dental assistant program, advanced ergonomics, the manufacturing engineering technician co-op program, video game development and the visual effects and editing for contemporary media program. The school’s deficit is projected to surpass $50 million next year with enrolment expected to drop by about 18 per cent — and even the recent provincial announcement of funding reforms hasn’t inspired much confidence at the school. “Even with this important investment, we are unable to maintain programs that operate at a significant deficit or are no longer aligned with student and labour market needs,” said Susan Cluett, Fanshawe’s senior VP of academics. “These are commitments that we have to make to ensure the viability of our program offerings across the board.” Cluett said students currently enrolled in these programs will have the opportunity to complete their education, but the programs will be suspended as of this fall. Mercifully, there won’t be any layoffs as a result, the school said. The upshot: The way Cluett and the school are talking about this round of cuts is worth paying attention to, because it seems to suggest the outlook is getting worse, not better at Ontario colleges. Programs like the dental assistant program or the manufacturing engineering technician program aren’t programs with sparse enrolment or niche career opportunities, and Cluett told CBC News London that programs like the dental assistant program — which sees high enrolment and produces graduates in high demand for the local dental sector — were being cut simply because they had “high delivery costs.” Awkward, too, are cuts to manufacturing-aligned programs, which come at a time when the region is trying very hard to attract new small- and mid-sized manufacturers. Put it all together and it’s not hard to envision Fanshawe’s financial challenges beginning to cloud the region’s long-standing economic pitch of delivering a deep and highly educated talent pool. Read more: CBC News London | Fanshawe College | | | Heeman’s set to host inaugural Cider Salon Canada Homer Simpson’s neighbour, Ned Flanders, once said of apple beverages: “If it’s clear and yella, you got juice there fella; if it’s tangy and brown, you’re in cider town.” Which is where you might find yourself if you’re at Heeman’s Cellars’ (a division of the Heeman’s farm, greenhouse and retail operation) ‘Cider Salon’ event next weekend. The Cider Salon, scheduled for March 28 at the 20422 Nissouri Road Heeman’s farm operation, is described as a Canadian first for the growing cider industry. “It’s kind of like a coming-out moment for fine cider in Ontario and Canada,” said Tom Herman, speaking with The London Free Press. Tickets are $60, and guests can drink “unlimited sampling within a two-hour window.” Heeman says the event is “designed to be kind of like an intimate showcase of [cider] makers’ best products,” with opportunities to talk to cider makers. The upshot: Heeman’s invested substantially in its cider facility back in 2021, and in the time since the sector has matured considerably in Ontario. The salon format is interesting — cider seems to want to sit somewhere between craft beer and wine on the frat/formal spectrum. A thinking person’s beverage, if you will. It’s got a little ways to go until it’s rivalling places like Niagara or Prince Edward County as a regional draw, but as area operations like Heeman’s, Shale Ridge Estate Winery & Cidery, Twin Pines Orchards & Cider House and Great Lakes Farms are demonstrating, where there’s good apples, a good cider industry can follow. Read more: London Free Press | Facebook | | | Ivey launches AI Fellows Program Ivey Business School is looking to get ahead of the AI boom, announcing this week it was launching an AI Fellows Program, tapping AI talent from the private sector to “help shape how Ivey Business School prepares leaders for an AI-enabled world.” The program will have 16 inaugural fellows — most of them Ivey alumni who have gone on to take senior roles in the AI sector. Fellows include Dev Saxena of OpenAI, Michael Pelosi of Cohere, Melissa Hartwick of Boston Consulting Group and many others. “By bringing leaders working at the forefront of AI into our classrooms and research community, we can ensure that Ivey continues to link research to practice,” said Ivey dean Julian Birkinshaw. Salim Teja, one of the AI fellows (a partner at Radical Venture) said programs like this “create an important bridge between the people building these technologies and the leaders who will use them to shape the future of business.” The upshot: Stepping back, AI presents a curious problem and opportunity for top business schools. On one hand, many proponents of the tech question whether business schools will remain relevant in the age of AI, while on the other hand, schools are eager to be the laboratories where the AI future is hashed out. Last month, Ivey did something else interesting in the AI space when it rolled out its nebulaONE platform, which gives faculty and students access to an enterprise AI model, a Canadian first (schools like UCLA and London Business School have led the way on this). There’s also a lot of interest from a governmental perspective in sovereign AI infrastructure that allows Canadian students to work and learn AI without relying on foreign (read: American) tech companies. (Last year, the feds pumped $42.5 million into an AI computing infrastructure project at the University of Toronto.) What Ivey is likely hoping for here is a program that truly moves the school towards new ways of approaching the technology rather than just wrapping up a traditional business school education in a shiny new interface. Read more: Western News | | | Veteran’s Village breaks ground Construction is officially underway at the London Veterans Village, a 25-unit supportive housing community on the grounds of the Parkwood Institute. The project, backed by the Homes For Heroes Foundation, announced this week that shovels were officially in the ground, with a targeted late-summer 2026 opening — a fast timeline, though the homes themselves are smaller prefabricated tiny homes, so that helps. “This village represents more than just housing, it’s about restoring dignity, creating community, and providing the support veterans need to successfully transition to independent living,” said Brad Field, president and CEO of the Calgary-based Homes for Heroes Foundation. “The start of construction marks an exciting and meaningful step forward for Homes For Heroes and for the veterans we serve.” The upshot: Once opened, the London village will be the largest of the Foundation’s villages, and will bring its total to roughly 105 homes, once London and another ongoing project in Winnipeg are completed. Which is great, but the scale of the problem is a lot bigger: consider a federal government estimate that there are approximately 2,000 veterans experiencing homelessness across Canada in any given year. Homes for Heroes’ own founder, David Howard, has suggested in the past that the real number could be as high as 10,000, arguing that many veterans don’t self-identify at shelters or food banks. The Parkwood location gives the London village something the others mostly lack: proximity to a specialized veteran’s mental health facility, with paths into St. Joseph’s care programs. Last year, MP Arielle Kayabaga spoke to the strength of London’s project and the supports that exist around it, saying that veteran’s homelessness is “a national challenge that requires local solutions,” and said it would be “all hands on deck to make sure that 25 veterans are going to be off the streets.” Read more: CTV News London | | | Dispatch: March 20, 2026 A summary of recent business appointments and announcements, plus event listings for the upcoming week. View listings here | | | | |