The new owners of the former Hershey plant in Smiths Falls said Thursday they hope to have their product flowing out of the Ottawa Valley in the next two years.

Aquablue International, a bottled water company, made the announcement from the floor of the old chocolate factory, which company officials now say will be transformed into a facility that produces bottled water.

The town of Smiths Falls, around 80 kilometres southwest of Ottawa, lost 500 jobs when the chocolate factory closed.

But now that a water bottling company has decided to move to town, there will be new opportunities to make up for some of that lost employment, said Smiths Falls Mayor Dennis Staples.

"Today, manufacturing plants are closing at an alarming rate. There isn't a day that goes by... you read the paper or hear the news, and you hear about another one. This is affecting towns and cities everywhere," Staples said at the announcement.

"We're very pleased today and excited to announce we're no longer part of this trend of closures."

160 new high-wage jobs

Representatives from Aquablue said that by early next year, the Smiths Falls plant would be busy again, producing bottled water for an international market.

Aquablue said it intends to hire 160 workers in the next two years. The company also said that all of those positions would be high-wage jobs.

The company said it will need those workers to produce what it expects will be 300 million litres of water per year — much of which will be exported abroad.

Joe Cressy, who speaks for the Polaris Institute, said environmental groups are concerned about both the environmental effects of extracting local water and of generating so many bottles.

"Right now, what's good for the environment is good for jobs," said Cressy, who said Smiths Falls should also be wary that the new jobs the bottled water company creates might not be permanent.

"Unfortunately, the bottled water industry is going down. This product has a diminishing market value."

Aquablue President Dan Villeneuve said the company will draw most of its water from the municipal supply but will use less water than the Hershey plant did in its manufacturing process.

He also said that the company has a plan in place to counteract some of the environmental concerns people might have.

Villeneuve said Aquablue plans to build a plastic bottle recycling facility and that he hopes to soon market fresh water dispensers that will bring both regular water and flavoured water to schools so students can fill up reusable water containers for a fee.

"When it comes to PET [polyethylene terephthalate] bottles, Aquablue is committed to reducing its carbon footprint."