On two week-long trips to Australia in the past month, the CEO and vice-chairman of Saputo Inc. has travelled hundreds of kilometres in the state of Victoria to meet with dairy farmers who own shares of Warrnambool Cheese and Butter Factory Co.

Since Saputo went public in 1997, the Montreal-based company has completed 22 deals totalling $4.2-billion. But never before has it been engaged in a public bidding war. Its opponents, local producers, have played the nationalist card, depicting Saputo as a foreign producer that would turn the Australian dairy market upside down.

Getting a foot in Australia is key for Mr. Saputo. When the 47-year-old executive succeeded his father a decade ago, he set Saputo on an international course, believing that the country’s biggest dairy processor had outgrown Canada. Australia, with Argentina and New Zealand, is one of the few countries that has the infrastructure to produce dairy products and ingredients on a large scale and has access to milk at low international prices.

The demand of milk has been increasing these years, so the supply can’t satisfy people’s daily demand anymore. Due to this reason, the dairy company is expanding to an international company, and trying to transport good from Australia and New Zealand to Canada. It is a good strategy that can be used when a company need more products and also inspired me how to choose  the operating company.

source:http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/saputos-global-dairy-expansion-sets-its-sights-on-australia/article15480711/