Saputo lost money in the third quarter, dragged down by loss of $265 million on its operations in Austalia.
It has closed six of the 11 plants it bought there and president and chief executive officer Lino Saputo said “while there is still uncertainty in the near-term market dynamics, we are dedicated to doing everything we can to maximise the results of the division.”
The third-quarter loss was $124 million compared with a profit of $179 million for the same quarter a year earlier. The third quarter ended Dec. 31.
Revenues declined by seven percent to $4.3 billion.
Saputo said “with most of the heavy lifting behind us, I remain very confident in our long-term strategy”.
He said the global dairy industry is experiencing a decline in production and less efficient producers “are dropping off in terms of dairy farms and their contribution tomilk production.”
In Canada “we are seeing that the consumer is resilient as a whole in our domestic market but the international market still remains a big question mark.”
