Maple Leaf Foods may be primarily a Canadian company, but CEO Curtis Frank said opportunities exist for the meat, poultry and alternative protein producer to expand its reach in the United States.
Frank told of the potential for business in the United States while speaking on January 23 at the CIBC Western Institutional Investor Conference in Whistler, British Columbia.
Frank said Maple Leaf Foods’ U.S. operations “are about nine-ish percent” of the company’s portfolio.
It has plant-based food production facilities in Seattle, Washington; Indianapolis, Indiana; and Turners Falls, Massachusetts. It also has an office and an innovation lab in Chicago, Illinois.
“The platform we’ve built in the U.S. now is really exciting for us,” said Frank. “We’ve got a distribution network that’s up and running. We’re in every one of the top 10 retailers in the U.S., so we’ve got a really nice platform to build around.”
Those plant-based protein facilities are a “point of difference” for Maple Leaf Foods, and Frank said such a point of difference is important for a company trying to extend its geographic reach.
“That’s insulated us a little bit in the U.S. market,” said Frank.
Frank describes Maple Leaf Foods’ growth potential in the United States as “enormous.”
In Canada, Frank said, Maple Leaf Foods has “just over 100 items on average” in major Canadian grocers. But in the United States, that number of items is closer to 14 in major store chains, but that number is also growing.
“The good news is the trucks are going there,” said Frank. “The relationships exist. There’s a selling and marketing organization, and they’re supporting on average 14 items in a grocery store in the United States. Closing the gap between 14 and 100 (could be) very lucrative for us. And then inorganically, of course over time, there’s opportunities in the U.S. as well for us.”
