TORONTO – Maple Leaf Foods Inc. (MFI: TSX) ("Maple Leaf" or the "Company") today announced that it has closed its wiener production facility on Brockley Road, Hamilton and transferred production to its new prepared meats facility in Hamilton.
"We are in the final phase of completing a transformation of our prepared meats network," said Michael H. McCain, President and CEO. "We have established world-class facilities and technologies to step-change our profitability and competitiveness. This year, the focus is on shifting production to these new facilities, closing legacy plants, and realizing related cost and productivity gains. We are doing this in a way that is respectful of our people and provides them ongoing employment opportunities wherever possible. A low-cost, highly efficient network will provide a strong platform for growth and support Canada's broader agrifood sector."
Maple Leaf has produced wieners at the leased Brockley Road plant since 1994. Approximately 88 per cent of the plant's workforce of 213 people has been provided employment at the new Heritage facility in Hamilton. The new jobs provide these people with opportunities to advance their skills in a high technology environment.
To date, the commissioning of the Heritage facility has been successful and on schedule. The Company is focused on transferring production from four other plants over the remainder of 2014, which will subsequently close, and continuing to ramp up both wiener and sliced meats production at the new facility. It will be among the largest and most technologically advantaged plants of its kind in North America.
Maple Leaf Foods Inc. is a leading food processing company, headquartered in Toronto, Canada. The Company employs approximately 18,000 people at its operations across Canada and in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Asia. The Company had sales of $4.4 billion in 2013.
Forward Looking Statement
This document and statements made in the above noted conference call may contain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities law. Such statements include, but are not limited to, expectations regarding the timing and outcome of the protein transformation strategy. These statements are not guarantees of future events and involve assumptions and risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed, implied or forecasted in such forward-looking information. Some of the factors that could cause actual results or outcomes to differ materially from the results expressed, implied or forecasted by such forward-looking information, including some of the assumptions used in making such statements, is discussed more fully in the Company's Annual Management's Discussion and Analysis for the period ended December 31, 2013. This includes the section entitled "Risk Factors", which is updated each quarter in the Management's
Discussion and Analysis and is available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Maple Leaf does not intend to, and Maple Leaf disclaims any obligation to, update any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.
Source: Maple Leaf Foods Inc.
