Quebec cat-litter maker to begin construction on Windsor plant

WINDSOR  — A Canadian cat-litter company Tuesday will break ground on a 52,000-square-foot factory in Windsor’s Great Western Industrial Park.

Groupe Intersand Canada, a premium cat-litter producer that sells products in 45 countries, is building its second factory and its first outside of its native Quebec in the park. Company spokesman Carl Dubois said plant construction is expected to run until March or April next year.

Once at peak production, the company expects that the $20 million plant will be able to produce up to 250 million pounds of litter annually. The factory will also have space to add production lines at a future time, he said.

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Plans to build the litter factory have been in the works for months. BizWest previously reported that a then-unnamed cat litter company had submitted construction plans to Windsor city officials earlier this year.

The company chose the Windsor site due to its proximity to several interstate highways from which it can distribute across the United States. However, the biggest reason that Intersand chose Windsor is because it’s close to Wyoming and its ample supply of sodium bentonite, the raw ingredient that makes cat litter clump when it comes in contact with liquid.

“The best [bentonite] that provides the highest absorption rate around the world is the sodium bentonite from Wyoming,” he said. “It’s well-renowned for being the purest and being of the highest-quality for cat-litter purposes.”

Dubois said the plant will be highly automated in production, but the company plans to hire about 20 people in production and logistics at the factory.