Maple Leaf Foods
 |
|
| Public | |
| Traded as | : MFI |
| Industry | Foods |
| Founded | Toronto, Ontario (1927) |
| Headquarters | Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
|
Key people
|
Michael McCain, Chief Executive Officer |
|
Number of employees
|
24,000 (2008) |
| Website | www.mapleleaf.ca |
Maple Leaf Foods Inc. (: MFI) is a major Canadian consumer packaged meats company. Its head office is in Toronto.
Maple Leaf Foods is the result of the 1991 merger between Canada Packers and Maple Leaf Mills.
Canada Packers was founded in 1927 as a merger of several major Toronto meat packers, most prominently William Davies Company and was immediately Canada's largest food processor, a title it would hold for the next sixty years. Already in the 1930s, it used the brand name Maple Leaf for its pork products. Its main business was pork, and its massive operations processing hogs for export to the United Kingdom helped Toronto earn its nickname "Hogtown." Moving into western Canada it became Canada's largest beef slaughterer. In 1944, it also entered the tanning industry with the acquisition of Beardmore & Co.
Canada Packers diversified into other food products including ice cream, cheese, and canned and frozen fruits and vegetables, by 1950 marketed under the York brand. In 1975, it was listed as the 14th largest business in Canada.
During the 1980s, Canada Packers began to suffer. It closed some facilities, including its tannery. It moved into other markets, acquiring well-known brands such as Squirrel peanut butter and Black Diamond cheese.
Maple Leaf Mills was created in 1961 through the amalgamation of the Maple Leaf Milling Company Limited, Toronto Elevators Limited and Purity Flour Mills Limited. Its origins can be traced back over 170 years to Grantham Mills, built in 1836 in St. Catharines, Ontario.
In 1989, the McLean family that had dominated Canada Packers since its founding announced its intention to sell its stake in the company. The controlling interest passed in 1990 to the British Hillsdown Holdings, which already owned Maple Leaf Mills, through a complex transaction in which Canada Packers purchased Maple Leaf Mills in exchange for its own shares. In 1991, the combined company was renamed Maple Leaf Foods. The firm thus included a large bread division, best known for the Dempster's brand (Canada's best selling brand of bread). During restructuring efforts led by David Newton as CEO and Lewis Rose as CFO, it sold or closed most of its slaughterhouses. These measures were successful and the company returned to profitability.
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Wikipedia