Saputo Inc., the largest dairy processor in Canada and
third-largest in the United
States, will reveal its financial status on Thursday.
The Globe and Mail says in a feature article that when
Saputo reveals its fourth-quarter results, it will likely tell how well the
integration of its most recent acquisition, Warrnambool Cheese and Butter of
Australia is going.
Saputo paid a hefty premium to out-bid competitors for the
company which it hopes to use as a launching pad into the Asian markets,
especially China.
Saputo is now valued at $10 billion on the stock markets; it
went public in 1997 after starting as a family business and expanding from its
Montreal base to a company with operations across Canada, over most of the
United States and into Argentina and now Australia.
Its history is tainted by one brush with the Montreal Mafia
which has been documented in a book about the Mafia. The Saputos have said the
accounts are not true and that the company is free of any criminal
involvements.
There are critics of Canada’s dairy industry who say supply
management has prompted the company to shop elsewhere because it can’t use
Canada as a launching pad into export markets.
That means jobs and potential tax revenues are being
generated elsewhere.
Dairy farmers counter that supply management has steadied
the industry, providing them and Saputo with a solid base on which to build for
the future.
