Dairy giant Saputo plans to close its milk and cream processing plant at Brampton, Ont. by the end of October and shift its production to its other facilities in the province.
Montreal-based Saputo also said Tuesday it plans to gradually consolidate all its distribution for the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) into one centre at Vaughan, Ont. between now and the end of September.
The closure and consolidation affect about 190 Saputo employees in Ontario, about 120 of whom are to be offered relocations within the company’s Canadian dairy products division.
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The company said Tuesday its moves will cost about $4.6 million after tax, including a fixed assets write-down of about $2 million.
Saputo, whose dairy and cheese brands include Armstrong, Baxter, Dairyland, Neilson, Nutrilait and Vachon, said its move is ultimately expected to save the company about $6.5 million per year, after tax.
Canada’s largest dairy processor, the 11th-largest in the world, said the moves are part of its “continual analysis of its overall activities and the implementation of measures aimed at improving its operational efficiency.”
The company has made some investments in U.S. production capacity recently and also bought the former Neilson Dairy operations in Canada.
However, its “efficiency” drive over the past decade h
as also led it to close a number of facilities, including cheese plants at Harrowsmith, Cookstown and Oakville, Ont., Yorkton, Sask. and Souris, Man., and milk plants at Calgary and Armstrong, B.C.
