230 Jobs Axed at Cheese-Maker Saputo as Three Factories Close

23 Mar 2016 --- Saputo, the biggest cheese-maker in Canada, is to close three of its factories in its home market which will lead to 230 redundancies. Saputo said it is closing the factories to make itself more efficient. The three plans are in Ottawa, Sydney (Nova Scotia) and Princeville (Quebec).

The production that took place at the plants will be moved to other existing Saputo plants.

Currently, Saputo operates 25 dairy operations across Canada. All of the three plants will close by the end of 2017, the company said.

The Sydney plant will close in June this year, followed by the Princeville plant in August and then the Ottawa plant.

Saputo, whose brands include Black Creek, Armstrong and Dairyland, said some of the employees impacted by the closures will be moved across to other parts of the business.

The cost of the closure will be around $23 million and the company said it will take the financial hit in the fourth quarter of next year.

But it said it expected to make $7 million in annual savings by closing the plants.

Saputo also said it plans to make another $32 million in further efficiencies.