SAP Canada Inc., a subsidiary of SAP AG, on March 16 announced that Maple Leaf Foods Inc. will implement SAP software to provide an integrated technology platform across its global operations, help increase operational efficiencies and support its growth plans.
Headquartered in Toronto, Maple Leaf Foods is a household name in the Canadian food industry, with a portfolio of leading brands such as Maple Leaf, Dempster's, Olivieri and Schneiders, and has significant and growing bakery operations in the United States and the U.K. To support its goal of establishing a highly efficient and fully integrated systems and shared services organization, Maple Leaf Foods will implement SAP Business Suite software and industry-specific applications.
"Maple Leaf Foods requires a flexible, integrated information system that provides a single, consistent view of data to support our growth as a global food company," said Michael Vels, chief financial officer, Maple Leaf Foods. "The capabilities of SAP will streamline our customer interface, increase our speed to market and reduce operating costs. The software will provide us with the ability to incorporate best practices in the consumer packaged goods industry in North America and worldwide. SAP's best practices and deep integration in consumer packaged goods functionality will help us achieve our business goals."
Maple Leaf Foods will implement SAP solutions using a phased approach. The company will first leverage SAP's market-leading enterprise resource planning application, SAP ERP, which helps companies continually improve their core processes, including financials, human resources, manufacturing, sales, procurement and logistics. In addition, SAP enhancement packages are designed to enable leading organizations like Maple Leaf Foods to embrace continuous innovation while minimizing any potential disruption to its business. SAP enhancement packages allow customers to select and deploy only the functionality they need without upgrading their entire solution – leaving long implementations, upgrades and disintegrated point solutions in the past.
Maple Leaf Foods will also deploy the SAP for Consumer Products solution portfolio, a set of applications with industry-specific functionalities to help food companies become more demand-driven. The applications serve to enable innovation of business processes and products, speed time to market for new products, reduce operating costs, meet regulatory requirements and increase visibility and responsiveness throughout its supply chain. In addition, Maple Leaf Foods will leverage solutions within the SAP BusinessObjects portfolio, which help organizations better monitor business performance, increase process transparency, spot inefficiencies and identify and leverage growth opportunities.
"Consumer products companies such as Maple Leaf Foods operate in a very competitive market," said Mark Aboud, president and managing director, SAP Canada Inc. "To gain a competitive edge, these companies need to meet the volatile demands of their customers by introducing affordable quality products much faster than their competitors and meet increasingly stringent industry regulations. SAP's industry-rich solutions are expected to help Maple Leaf Foods to further strengthen its business processes, tighten costs, increase sales and marketing effectiveness, manage risk and enhance global competitiveness."
Maple Leaf Foods joins more than 3,000 consumer products companies worldwide that use SAP solutions to power their businesses.
About Maple Leaf Foods Inc.
Maple Leaf Foods Inc. is a leading food processing company, headquartered in Toronto, Canada. The company employs approximately 23,500 people at its operations across Canada and in the United States, the United Kingdom and Asia. The company had sales of $5.2 billion in 2008.