Maple Leaf Foods Inc. reported its financial results for the second quarter, June 30, 2015. The company recorded sales from continuing operations of $820.8 million for the second quarter of 2015, a decrease of 1.3% from last year, or 2.6% after adjusting for the impact of foreign exchange. The decrease was primarily a result of lower selling prices due to lower market values within the Meat Products Group, partially offset by improved volume. Sales from continuing operations for the first six months was $1,601.0 million, an increase of 3.8%, or 2.5% after adjusting for the impact of foreign exchange, due to improved volume and a favorable sales mix, partially offset by lower selling prices due to lower market values within the Meat Products Group.
"We are very pleased with the progress we made in the second quarter," said Michael H. McCain, president and CEO. "We delivered improved volumes with strong commercial performance. We marked a major milestone with the closing of the last of our remaining legacy facilities, which brought an end to our duplicative supply chain, and continued to improve the operational efficiency of our new start-up plants. All of these factors contributed to a significant improvement in earnings, consecutive quarter-over-quarter growth in EBITDA margin, and positive free cash flow. Over the balance of the year, we have aggressive plans to build on our commercial momentum and a clear line of sight on how to capture the additional benefits from our new plants and deliver our 10% EBITDA margin target."