Maple Leaf: Reports Second Quarter Financial Results

Toronto / CA. (ml) Maple Leaf Foods Inc. reports its financial results for the second quarter ended June 30. «We are very pleased with our performance in the second quarter from both an operating and a strategic perspective», says President and CEO Michael McCain.

«Our primary focus is the strategic transformation of the business to a focused, value-added meat, meals and bakery company, and we made excellent progress during the quarter. We finalized the sale of our animal nutrition business, we began the process of consolidating hog processing by closing a plant, and we are on track to complete what is a very complex change process. Operationally we delivered a solid profit performance in the second quarter, which in the context of our activity level and rising grain and meat raw material costs, was an excellent accomplishment».

Sales for the second quarter decreased three percent to 1,3 billion CAD while earnings from continuing operations, before restructuring and other related costs, increased twelve percent to 52,7 million CAD from 46,8 million CAD last year. Management believes this is the most appropriate basis on which to evaluate operating results, as restructuring and other related costs are not representative of continuing operations. In the second quarter 2007, the Company recorded restructuring and other related costs as a part of continuing operations of 30,7 million CAD (27,2 million CAD after tax), of which 27,8 million CAD related to the Company´s strategic reorganization of its protein operations.