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Maple Leaf Foods announced today that it has closed the sale of its pork processing operation, located in Burlington, Ontario, to Fearmans Pork, Inc., an affiliate of Sun Capital Partners Inc. for approximately $20 million."We are very pleased to complete this sale to Sun Capital," said Michael Vels, Executive Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer of Maple Leaf Foods. "This sale completes the transformation of our protein operations that we began in late 2006 to support our value-added meats and meals business with our highly efficient, scale fresh pork processing facility in Brandon, Manitoba."
Maple Leaf Consumer Foods will maintain a very strong relationship with the Burlington business which will supply its eastern Canadian operations. There will also be a continued relationship with the Rothsay rendering business, which will continue to provide services to the Burlington operation.
"The Ontario pork processing business is an impressive facility with significant potential to increase production levels. We are fully committed to growing the business, bringing our investment experience in the food processing industry to bear, working closely with hog suppliers and serving the markets with top-quality products. We believe there is opportunity to further expand into international markets and build out the company's market share for specialty and value-added products," said Anthony Polazzi, Principal at Sun Capital Partners. "Maple Leaf Foods will continue to be an important customer as we move forward."
Maple Leaf Foods Inc. is a leading Canadian food processing company headquartered in Toronto, Canada. The Company employs approximately 22,500 people at its operations across Canada and in the United States, Europe and Asia. The Company had sales of $5.2 billion in 2009.
Sun Capital Partners, Inc. is a leading private investment firm focused on leveraged buyouts, equity, debt, and other investments in companies that can benefit from its in-house operating professionals and experience. Sun Capital affiliates have invested in more than 240 companies worldwide with combined sales in excess of US$40 billion since Sun Capital's inception in 1995.
Maple Leaf Foods Inc.
