There has been no word on whether any Victorian dairy facilities would be impacted.
Lino Saputo, CEO of the company, has revealed that they would apply a strategy to networking their processing facilities in order to create efficiency, which has previously been used in Canada and the United States, where many plants have been shuttered.
Saputo Dairy Australia has been dealing with a milk supply shortage, which Mr Saputo acknowledged in recent remarks.
Saputo shuttered its cheese slice line at the Cobram facility in northern Victoria earlier this year.
In recent months, the corporation has announced production closures in the United States as well as the transfer of one line to another.
Mr Saputo explained how the business was applying a method previously used in Canada in an interview carried by Scotiabank, a Canadian-based bank.
“We took the model from our Canadian platform,” Mr Saputo said.
“We had to think about all of our assets, how much milk we were processing, which plants were the most effective and efficient, which ones should be generating more volume, and then allocate capital expenditure funds to improve their capacity so we could close others in the system.”
“It’s pretty similar to the architecture we’ve requested our other departments to concentrate on.”
“How much milk do we need to process, what are the most efficient plants to process it in, and which facilities in the system must be shut down?”
Mr. Saputo called the procedure “network optimization.”
“The United States and Australia are the two platforms with the greatest potential for us.”
“Australia is extremely different from the United States in that it is not a commodities problem, but rather a shortage of milk supply in the nation.”
“Milk output has been falling by around 4% per year, which means there is less milk for us to process, which means we need less plant in our system to operate our plant more effectively and efficiently.”
“By the conclusion of our strategic plan (the year 2025), we will have fewer plants in our US network and fewer plants in our Australian network.”
“There is still some adjusting we can do in Canada, not so much in Argentina where we have two factories working really smoothly, and a little bit in the UK.”
Mr. Saputo also mentioned “de-commoditizing” the firm and going into plant-based goods in his remarks.
In Tasmania, Saputo Dairy Australia operates factories in Kiewa, Cobram, Leongatha, Maffra, Allansford, Laverton, and Burnie. It still owns a decommissioned plant in Rochester.
In its financial results for the three months ending June 30, Saputo recorded sales of $4.327 billion (Canadian dollars), an increase of $839 million or 24.1%.
Net profits were $139 million, while EBITDA performance was $347 million.
More information has not been provided by Saputo Dairy Australia.
