Maple Leaf foods cutting 400 jobs

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Maple leaf foods is cutting 400 jobs across the country as it looks to streamline operations. Most of the those cuts will be at their Mississauga headquarters, but 64 jobs will disappear at its Hamilton facility.

The hourly employees and unionized staff are safe from the latest Maple Leaf job cuts, but more than 400 others will be let go.

DeGroote School of Business professor Marvin Ryder says “this change announced, doesn’t really affect the front line workers, this is more like accountants, payroll people who are duplicate between plants.”

Maple Leaf has struggled financially lately, having only two profitable quarters in the last 12. But experts say this cost cutting move has peaked the interest of investors.
“It seems to be working, today alone I’ve seen three investment companies say ‘buy Maple Leaf’. This is the last part, I don’t think we’ll hear of any more cuts for the next 2-3 years.”

Maple Leaf’s move will affect about three per cent of the company’s 12,000 employees across Canada, including middle management and office jobs.

Company officials say the move is an attempt to streamline operations, so they can re-invest in future growth. “That’s corporate gobblygook. They’re trying to reduce cost and they’re trying to put a good face on it…why? Because there are shareholders right now that are very concerned about the signal being sent, and their fears need to be allayed.”

The cuts are expected to happen by the end of the year, or by early 2016.