Maple Leaf Foods is to shut two US plant-based meat manufacturing sites as the Canadian food company seeks to improve profitability amid weaker demand.
In a statement yesterday (22 September), the meat and plant-based group said it was aiming to to “simplify” operations, “improve the competitiveness of its manufacturing network” and “strengthen the structural profitability” of the business.
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Production at plants in Seattle in Washington and in Turners Falls in Massachusetts will be wound down over the next 12 to 18 months.
Maple Leaf did not disclose how many jobs would be affected but said it would consider opportunities at other facilities where feasible.
Curtis Frank, Maple Leaf’s president and CEO, said the plant protein business has “changed significantly and declining volumes have left our manufacturing network substantially underutilised. Maintaining three facilities at these utilisation levels creates structural costs that are not sustainable over the long term”.
The owner of brands including Field Roast, Lightlife and Yves Veggie Cuisine will move production into what it called a single “plant protein centre of excellence” in Indianapolis in Indiana.
Maple Leaf plans to invest in the site and add employees as operations expand.
Frank said concentrating production in Indianapolis would “significantly improve the economics” of the manufacturing network and help build “a structurally stronger and sustainably profitable plant protein business”.
The CEO had told analysts in March 2025 there was “a pathway to profitable growth” in plant protein and he saw it as an “upside opportunity”.
In May, the company relaunched Yves Veggie Cuisine in Canada after acquiring the discontinued brand from Hain Celestial.
In the latest statement, Frank said the closures “do not change our commitment to the plant protein category”, insisting the move “strengthens the foundation of the business”.
In the second quarter to the end of June, Maple Leaf’s sales rose 1.6% to C$1.02bn ($723.8m). Adjusted EBITDA increased 4.8% year on year to C$137.1m.
Prepared foods, which includes plant-based protein, saw sales fall 2% in the quarter, reflecting lower volumes and higher trade promotion spending. Poultry sales rose 7.1%.
Maple Leaf reaffirmed its full-year 2026 guidance for mid-single-digit revenue growth and adjusted EBITDA of C$520m to C$540m.
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On Just Food, alongside the daily diet of news, analysis and interviews on the website, we have a quarterly digital magazine in which we dig into some of the hot topics facing the sector.
The latest edition, out now, has as its cover story a look at how snack makers are adjusting to the rise of GLP-1 drugs.
“In no way do we see GLP-1 as the end of snacking,” Bosco Fonts, the CEO of Cerealto, told Just Food. “On the contrary, snacking is the unlikely winner of GLP-1.” Is he right?
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And we speak to the founders of Biomel Gut Health about why they believe the UK plant-based business can successfully ride the interest in gut-health seen in the country.
