Doing What‘s Right
Keeping our people and food safe is a fundamental part of our culture. We made excellent progress last year in implementing our new food safety strategy, including:
- Further enhanced our plant sanitation programs, including sanitation effectiveness audits and weekly sanitation talks
- Reduced Listeria risk in all our ready-to-eat meat products through reformulation with bacterial growth inhibitors approved by Health Canada in late 2008
- Attained “A” rating with certification to Global Food Safety Initiative standard at all 19 facilities audited; with a goal to have all facilities certified by the end of 2011
- Implemented training programs to increase knowledge and responsibility for food safety excellence across Maple Leaf Foods
2010 marked our ninth consecutive year of continuous improvement in reportable injury frequency and an overall improvement of 20% across all Maple Leaf operations, an achievement that is among the best in the industry. We track and communicate our workplace safety record monthly, and we are proud that we have built a culture that prioritizes the health and safety of our people with continued excellent results.
Recognizing our responsibility as a major food company to respond to issues of food security and hunger, we distributed thousands of pounds of meat and bakery products to people in need last year. We also invested to support grassroots initiatives globally in countries devastated by extreme poverty, food shortages and resulting health issues. Our annual Community Day raised funds to support youth leadership involved in community-based food security projects. The passion of our people for reaching out and using their talents to achieve positive social change is simply inspiring!
We also made good progress in 2010 in reducing the environmental impact of our operations. In Ontario, where most of our plants are located, we achieved a 93% waste diversion rate. In the United Kingdom, our operations achieved a remarkable increase in landfill diversion from 62% in 2009 to 93% in 2010. We completed the full clean-up and recycling of all our electronic wastes in Ontario, sending more than 10 tonnes of electronic wastes to an ISO 14001 certified recycler. We will expand this initiative nationally in 2011. We implemented additional heat recovery at our three plants that consume the most fuel. We are proud that our new Hamilton bakery is being constructed to LEED standards and our office building in Mississauga was awarded LEED Gold Certification, one of only a few commercial buildings to achieve this standard in Ontario.
Michael H. McCain
President and
Chief Executive Officer
Richard A. Lan
Chief Operating Officer
Food Group
Looking Forward
As always, we are grateful to our people for their hard work and dedication, and to the millions of consumers that put their loyalty and faith in our products every day. And we place enormous importance on the relationships we have and earn every day with our customers.
Our business must be cost competitive if we are to deliver maximum value to our shareholders. That is a strategic imperative at Maple Leaf. We have a clear and comprehensive plan in place to realize this, a plan that is achievable, affordable and already producing improvements in our profitability and competitiveness. We have the foundation in our brands, market shares and people to deliver strong return to shareholders. We are implementing the plan – with discipline and focus – to deliver on this promise.
Sincerely,
Michael H. Vels
Executive Vice-President
And Chief Financial Officer
J. Scott McCain
President and
Chief Operating Officer
Agribusiness Group