INTRODUCTION

Maple Leaf Foods Inc.  is a major Canadian food processing company, founded in 1927 as a merger of several major Toronto meat packers. The company was originally known as Canada Packers. It was founded in 1927 as a merger of several major Toronto meat packers, most prominently William Davies Company and was immediately Canada's largest food processor, a title it would hold for the next sixty years. In 1975, it was listed as the 14th largest business in Canada. Its main business was pork, and its massive operations processing hogs for export to the United Kingdom helped Toronto earn its nickname "Hogtown." Moving into western Canada it became Canada's largest beef slaughterer. It also moved into other markets, producing well-known brands such as Squirrel peanut butter and Black Diamond cheese. The company also developed a large bread division, best known for the Dempster's brand, which is Canada's bestselling brand of bread, and includes San Francisco-area Grace Baking products.

During the 1980s, the company began to suffer. It was purchased by the British Hillsdown Holdings who sold or closed most of its slaughterhouses and merged the firm with Maple Leaf Mills, and renaming it Maple Leaf Foods. These efforts, led by David Newton as CEO and Lewis Rose as CFO, were successful and the company returned to profitability.

After being successfully revived, the company was purchased by Wallace McCain, formerly co-CEO of McCain Foods, who had been ousted by his brother and co-owner Harrison McCain, in 1995 along with the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan. In 2003, the company purchased rival Schneider Foods. The company is also one of Canada's largest agribusinesses, owning poultry and hog farms across the country. The main slaughterhouse is located in Brandon, Manitoba.