Maple Leaf Foods - History

History

The company was originally known as Canada Packers. It 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. 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. It also moved into other markets, producing well-known brands such as Squirrel peanut butter and Black Diamond cheese, and also developed a large bread division, best known for the Dempster's brand (Canada's best selling brand of bread), and San Francisco-based Grace Baking products. In 1944, it also entered the tanning industry with the acquisition of Beardmore & Co.

In 1975, it was listed as the 14th largest business in Canada.

During the 1980s, the company began to suffer. It was purchased by the British Hillsdown Holdings which sold or closed most of its slaughterhouses and closed its tannery, and merged the firm with Maple Leaf Mills, renaming it Maple Leaf Foods. These efforts, led by David Newton as CEO and Lewis Rose as CFO, were successful and the company returned to profitability.

After being successfully revived, the company was purchased by Wallace McCain, formerly co-CEO of McCain Foods, who had been ousted by his brother and co-owner Harrison McCain, in 1995 along with the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan. In 2003, the company purchased rival Schneider Foods. The company is also one of Canada's largest agribusinesses, owning poultry and hog farms across the country. The main slaughterhouse is located in Brandon, Manitoba.