History of Maple Leaf Foods

Maple Leaf Foods was originally called Canada Packers and was founded in 1927 as a union of many Toronto meat packers, it was Canada’s largest food processor and it held its title for sixty years. The company was purchased by Wallace McCain, who was formerly CEO of McCain Foods. In 1980 the company was bought by British Hillsdown Holding, they sold and closed most of the slaughterhouses and combined Canada Packers with Maple Leaf Mills and renamed it Maple Leaf Foods. The headquarters is located in Toronto; Maple Leaf Foods has many operations across Canada also in the United States, United Kingdom, Asia and Mexico. Pork was the main business for this company but the company also processed hogs and exported them to the United Kingdom, this is when Toronto got nickname “Hogtown.” Maple Leaf Foods became Canada’s largest beef slaughterer in the Western part of Canada. Maple Leaf Foods purchased their rival Schneider Foods in 2003.