Thursday, November 09, 2006

Maple Leaf Foods Tardy Recall

Maple Leaf (Toronto:MFI) continues to experience controversy. In a corporate press release the company indicates they found syringe casings on Oct 24, Nov 2 and Nov 3. “None of the products involved and produced on November 2nd and November 3rd ever left the Company's possession.” The company now also claims that the product recall is complete and the product is no longer on retail shelves. The company had a critical investor conference call on Oct 26. The governance question becomes who knew what and when? If there have been credible reports for two weeks why was there not a recall instituted sooner.

While much is up in the air it may be that Maple Leaf did not move appropriately to deal with this issue. Two weeks is a very long time. Yes no one has reported any ill effects this time. What changes will be instituted to avoid this problem? Why does Maple Leaf need a catastrophe to initiate changes? My sense of the matter is that you recall whenever there is a problem. But management needs to be aware of problems and not in a bubble preparing for investor conference calls.