Maple Leaf Foods laying off 400 employees
by Canadian Manufacturing.com Staff, with a file from The Canadian Press
Food processor trimming approximately 3 per cent of its workforce
TORONTO—Maple Leaf Foods has announced it will lay off 400 salaried employees in an effort to streamline its operations and become a more cost-competitive business.
The announcement follows a corporate review of the meat packer’s operations and will affect slightly more than 3 per cent of its workforce.
“We have significant opportunity to use our scale and cost efficiency as a source of competitive advantage,” Michael McCain, the company’s president and CEO, said. “As we complete our network transformation, we are now able to address the additional resources that managing years of change required and place greater rigour on building a cost culture. Our goal is to minimize the cost of running the business so we can focus our investments and future job creation on growing the business.”
Maple Leaf said the majority of the layoffs will be completed before the end of 2015 while the rest will take place in 2016. The company did not release any specifics about what facilities or level of employees may be affected. The company has been cutting costs as part of a restructuring plan by combining some of its plants, closing others and reducing its number of distribution centres.
Meanwhile, the company told investors it is in an “enviable” position.
“The ramp up of our new world-class supply chain is nearing completion; we have a portfolio of market-leading products and brands, leadership in innovation and an accomplished team of people who deliver strategic value to our customers. We are committed to building a more sustainable company as a core growth platform and we are taking important steps to reduce costs and redirect resources to those areas providing the greatest opportunity for business expansion,” McCain said.
