Canadian food group Maple Leaf Foods said it has “plenty of irons in the fire” for growth in the UK.

Speaking at the firm’s earnings conference yesterday (24 February), CEO Michael McCain said that he was “optimistic” about the market, despite a dip in sales due to foreign exchange translation from its UK and US businesses.

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“The UK has been a tremendous business for us over the years and it will continue to be a tremendous business for us,” McCain told analysts. “We’re not going to adjust our product strategy because the economy had a challenging year or two. We don’t think that would be prudent long term.”

McCain added that its market positions in the UK are still “strong” and that there is still room for growth opportunities and innovation.

“We have lots of irons in the fire for growth and we’re actually quite optimistic about where that UK business is going to be in a few years from now in relation to today,” he added.

Maple Leaf yesterday reported a swing to full-year profits, boosted by improved performances in its prepared meats and fresh poultry businesses.

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Net profit in 2009 amounted to C$52.1m compared to a loss of C$36.8m a year earlier. Sales, however, dipped to C$5.22bn from C$5.25bn in 2008.

Pinpointing a category for growth, McCain said the company is considering its sandwich business as a “seedling for growth” in the coming year.

“It has not performed well at all today but we think it’s a seedling opportunity. All of our business at this juncture is moderate…the opportunity for growth is in the grocery channel for fresh sandwiches. You only have to look at the size of that market to see what the growth potential is.

“All categories don’t necessarily perform at their best to start with, but we’re optimistic [sandwiches] will grow…some categories grow into a mighty oak and some don’t but that is the nature of business.”