Maple Leaf looks beyond recall

Article Excerpt

Maple Leaf Foods has suffered several setbacks in the past three to four years. Because of unfavourable foreign-exchange rates, the company stopped exporting fresh meat products as part of a plan to focus on its more-profitable packaged-food and bakery businesses. Last year, 21 people died of listeriosis (a form of food poisoning) after eating contaminated meat. That led to lost sales and a costly recall. Moreover, Maple Leaf had to pay $25 million to settle class-action lawsuits. Meanwhile, things are going well at Canada Bread. This subsidiary accounts for 76% of Maple Leaf’s market cap. That means you can buy Maple Leaf’s core meat-processing business for about $2.60 a share. That’s cheap in light of the company’s well-known brands, high market share and improving outlook. MAPLE LEAF FOODS INC. $11 (Toronto symbol MFI; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 134.0 million; Market cap: $1.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.3; SI Rating: Average) is Canada’s largest food-processing company. It mainly makes its…