Meat and poultry company Maple Leaf Foods is looking to grow its presence outside of Canada, and one possible way to achieve that growth is through mergers and acquisitions, company CEO Michael McCain said.
Speaking during Maple Leaf Foods’ third quarter earnings call on November 2, McCain noted that the company is eyeing several strategic initiatives, and “geographic expansion is one of them.”
“There are lots of opportunities in other parts of the world to deploy capital and acquire assets,” McCain said. We certainly are looking at all of those opportunities. We continue to look. We continue to evaluate and talk about and pursue various options in that regard.”
While McCain said that the decision-makers at Maple Leaf Foods “are not elephant hunters,” he noted that the size companies or facilities in international markets depends on the market.
The company recently completed an initiative of transition, where it had shut down some of its older processing plants and replaced them with ones that are more modern and efficient. The transition left Maple Leaf Foods facing several years’ worth of net losses, but now that the company has returned to profitability, it is looking at growth options. During the third quarter of fiscal year 2016, the company recorded net earnings of CA$31.8 million (US$23.9 million) which was an improvement of 70.1 percent when compared to the third quarter of fiscal year 2015.
Maple Leaf Foods is headquartered in Mississaugua, Ontario. Its key brands include Maple Leaf, Maple Leaf Prime, Maple Leaf Natural Selections, Schneiders, Schneiders Country Naturals and Mina.
