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Our History, Our Heritage
The Thomas family began processing and canning tomatoes in 1933. The operation was established near Windsor, Ontario, Canada, as southwestern Ontario, and particularly the Essex County area, proved to be an excellent environment for vegetable production.
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 As
with most crops in this era, tomatoes were planted, grown and harvested by hand.
Few chemicals were available for pest or weed control. Soil quality was maintained
by crop rotation, manure application and low impact tillage equipment. Tomatoes,
for the most part, represented only part of an integrated crop and livestock operation
for most farmers. As well, the labour intensive nature of production meant that
growers could effectively manage only small areas of production with growers averaging
10-15 acres of tomatoes per farm.
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 Some
farms chose to grow and process, others remained as growers only. Processing facilities
were small by today’s standards and very labour intensive. Tomatoes were
received in wooden hampers, washed and steam scalded to loosen the peel. Actual
peeling and coring was done by hand with the cans filled from there. Container
ends were seamed on one at a time and cans placed in metal retort baskets. These
baskets were lowered into boiling water for cooking. After this process, the containers
were unloaded and stacked to air cool. They could then be labeled and cased.
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A Family Owned Business
Thomas Canning was one such facility. It was started by William and Grace Thomas with the help of their two sons Grant and Wilbur and their wives Elsie and Julie. Production increased gradually each year as both the growing and processing operation began to adopt new technologies while remaining, however, a primarily labour intensive operation. It was not until the late 1960’s and early 1970’s that significant changes occurred in the tomato industry. The development of varieties more tolerant to mechanical handling allowed machine harvesting to replace hand picking. In the plant, these same varieties could be mechanically peeled and did not require coring. Filling and packaging operations lent themselves well to automation as well.
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 Through
new varieties and mechanization, both field and factory production increased dramatically.
These technologies evolved the industry toward fewer and larger growers and factories.
Striving for efficiency became the norm as the number of units produced became
the measure of success.
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Today Thomas Canning is operated by a third generation of the Thomas family, with Jack, Bill and Bob Thomas managing the operation. Growers are contracted in Essex, Kent and Lambton counties. Our products are sold under the Utopia label as well as private labeled products that are distributed across Canada, the United States and the West Indies.
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 The
company is now pioneering the growth of Ontario processed tomato products to the
organic sector. Thomas Canning is addressing consumer demand for environmental
accountability and integrity through a program of sustainable field and factory
practices.
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 Throughout
our history and as we move into the future as a pioneer of sustainable practices
and organic production, our success continues to be based on the production of
high quality products with food safety and quality as our paramount goals.
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