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Dairy seventh largest industry
It was great to see a front-page feature (‘Western milk merger’) on the dairy industry in your July 27 issue of Strategy.
The merger of the Western co-operatives certainly makes Dairyworld one of the leading dairy processors in Canada.
In your article, you wrote that this positions the Western alliance as the country’s leading dairy. I think that you’ll find that they probably now rank third in size.
Ault’s annual sales are over $1 billion, we have 5,000 skus, and the largest and most sophisticated r&d centre in Canada.
Agropur processes and distributes a full line of dairy products, and with annual revenues in excess of $1 billion, they also would be larger in terms of annual sales.
Worldwide dairying is one of the largest consumer industries, with sales between $400 billion to $500 billion. Canada’s share of the dairy business would be around $7 billion, making this the seventh-largest industry in Canada.
Nationally, there are over 25,000 people employed in the dairy industry. I don’t think that many people are aware of the size of our industry.
Performance results, of course, are based on satisfying consumer tastes and trends. Consumers have come to expect a consistent supply of high-quality products from dairy processors.
For a country that is so geographically dispersed, we also have a wide variety of readily available fresh dairy products to choose from.
In Canada, our history and experience in dairying have enabled processors like Ault to develop a leading-edge position in developing innovative fat replacements and enhanced processing systems.
Some of these technologies have successfully been launched in Canada and are being marketed to other progressive companies around the world.
We are ‘moo-vers and shakers’ in what people sometimes consider to be a commodity or traditional business.
Thank you for your exposure about our industry.
Pamela Kempthorne
Director of corporate
communications
Ault Foods
Etobicoke, Ont.
