Lino Saputo persuaded his father to start a cheese-making business in the 1950s — now the company is an international dairy behemoth
Author of the article: Quentin Casey
Publishing date:Sep 22, 2021 •
Lino Saputo Sr., front, of the Montreal dairy giant Saputo Inc., and Lino A. Saputo Jr., president of and chief executive officer of the company, are seen at the annual Saputo meeting in Laval, in 2009. PHOTO BY DARIO AYALA/THE GAZETTE FILES
Considering its global reach, billions of dollars in sales, and the wealth of its founding family, Saputo Inc. is not an overly well-known Canadian company.
Considering its global reach, billions of dollars in sales, and the wealth of its founding family, Saputo Inc. is not an overly well-known Canadian company.
And yet over 70 years Saputo Inc., started by a family of Italian immigrants, has grown swiftly into an international dairy behemoth.
The Montreal-headquartered company is one of the biggest dairy processors in the world, selling cheese, milk, and other dairy products in more than 60 countries. It has in excess of 17,000 employees, 65 plants (18 in Canada; 27 in the U.S.; the rest in Argentina, Australia and the U.K.), and dozens of brands, such as Dairyland, Neilson, Milk2Go, Armstrong, Frigo, Baxter, Scotsburn, and Stella. Combined, Saputo Inc.’s brands generate north of $14 billion in annual revenue.
The company’s immense growth has propelled the founding Saputo family into the ranks of billionaires. As of September, founder Emanuele (Lino) Saputo and his family had a net worth of US$5.5 billion, according to Forbes, placing the family in the No. 486 spot on the Forbes list of global billionaires.
A sign at a Montreal Saputo plant, pictured in 2014.
PHOTO BY RYAN REMIORZ/THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES
Despite its size and status as a publicly traded company, Saputo Inc. still treads heavily on its humble origin story.
In the early 1950s, members of the Saputo family, led by Giuseppe, a cheesemaker, immigrated to Canada from the Italian village of Montelepre. One of Giuseppe’s sons, Lino, persuaded him to start a cheese-making business. According to the company’s corporate history, the family used $500 to buy equipment — and a bicycle for deliveries — in September 1954. The company built its first significant production facility three years later, and quickly benefited from the boom in the North American appetite for pizza and, specifically, mozzarella.
The company, long helmed by Lino Saputo, grew in large part through acquisition, including the 1988 purchase of two American cheese plants. The company went public on the Toronto Stock Exchange in October 1997 and shortly after tripled its size by acquiring Stella Foods in the U.S. Jolina Capital Inc., a holding company controlled by Lino Saputo, holds 32 per cent of Saputo Inc., making Jolina the principal shareholder.
Saputo, the son of an immigrant cheesemaker, had become a billionaire, philanthropist, and head of Quebec’s richest family.
“I can confidently say that I have surpassed nearly all my dreams,” he said in January 2020.
Saputo, now 84, stepped aside as Saputo Inc. chief executive in 2003, replaced by his son Lino Saputo Jr., marking a transition to third-generation family management. Lino Saputo Sr. remained as chair of the board until 2017, when he was again followed by his son. The company did not make either father or son available for an interview, saying Lino Sr. “is enjoying his well-earned retirement,” while Lino Jr. was too busy.
Lino Saputo Jr., now described as the richest man in Quebec, has continued Saputo Inc.’s regular diet of acquisitions, even buying companies focused on dairy alternatives, in an attempt to profit from the move by many consumers to non-dairy products.
The company says it has spent $9.1 billion to expand its operations since its 1997 initial public offering, including through 35 acquisitions, earning it a strong reputation for integrating and improving the many companies it has gobbled up. The company has made four acquisitions in 2021 alone, the most recent being its September purchase of the Carolina Aseptic and Carolina Dairy businesses in North Carolina for US$118 million (approximately $149 million)
Despite its size and status as a publicly traded company, Saputo Inc. still treads heavily on its humble origin story.
In the early 1950s, members of the Saputo family, led by Giuseppe, a cheesemaker, immigrated to Canada from the Italian village of Montelepre. One of Giuseppe’s sons, Lino, persuaded him to start a cheese-making business. According to the company’s corporate history, the family used $500 to buy equipment — and a bicycle for deliveries — in September 1954. The company built its first significant production facility three years later, and quickly benefited from the boom in the North American appetite for pizza and, specifically, mozzarella.
The company, long helmed by Lino Saputo, grew in large part through acquisition, including the 1988 purchase of two American cheese plants. The company went public on the Toronto Stock Exchange in October 1997 and shortly after tripled its size by acquiring Stella Foods in the U.S. Jolina Capital Inc., a holding company controlled by Lino Saputo, holds 32 per cent of Saputo Inc., making Jolina the principal shareholder.
Saputo, the son of an immigrant cheesemaker, had become a billionaire, philanthropist, and head of Quebec’s richest family.
“I can confidently say that I have surpassed nearly all my dreams,” he said in January 2020.
Saputo, now 84, stepped aside as Saputo Inc. chief executive in 2003, replaced by his son Lino Saputo Jr., marking a transition to third-generation family management. Lino Saputo Sr. remained as chair of the board until 2017, when he was again followed by his son. The company did not make either father or son available for an interview, saying Lino Sr. “is enjoying his well-earned retirement,” while Lino Jr. was too busy.
Lino Saputo Jr., now described as the richest man in Quebec, has continued Saputo Inc.’s regular diet of acquisitions, even buying companies focused on dairy alternatives, in an attempt to profit from the move by many consumers to non-dairy products.
The company says it has spent $9.1 billion to expand its operations since its 1997 initial public offering, including through 35 acquisitions, earning it a strong reputation for integrating and improving the many companies it has gobbled up. The company has made four acquisitions in 2021 alone, the most recent being its September purchase of the Carolina Aseptic and Carolina Dairy businesses in North Carolina for US$118 million (approximately $149 million)
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Saputo Inc. chief executive Lino Saputo Jr., speaks during the company’s annual general meeting in Laval, Que., in 2019.
PHOTO BY GRAHAM HUGHES/THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES
“We’re very fortunate that we’ve gotten very good at acquisitions,” Saputo Jr. told the Financial Post in 2019 when he was named Canada’s Outstanding CEO of the Year. “First and foremost, it’s through the due diligence process that we recognize how important it is to integrate effectively. I would say that we’ve looked at over 300 files and we’ve only made 31 acquisitions since we went public in 1997, so we have looked at a lot of files and we’ve walked away from a lot more files than we’ve materialized.”
Overall, Saputo Inc. posted revenue of $14.2 billion for the fiscal year ended March 2021 (down slightly from $14.9 billion in 2020), with $6.1 billion of 2021 revenue coming from the U.S., its largest geographic source of sales. Adjusted net earnings in 2021 were $715 million, down from $724 million in 2020.
Saputo Jr., now in his mid-50s, has been with the family-controlled company for 33 years, including nearly two decades as chief executive. According to a 2019 profile in the Globe and Mail, he has a constantly revolving collection of luxury cars, with a particular affinity for 1980s-era Porsches. A hockey fanatic, he built a private three-on-three rink that’s also used for a yearly company hockey tournament.
Saputo Jr., who plays goalie, says he enjoys the hot seat because “the puck stops with you.”
“No matter how many mistakes the people in front of you make, if the puck’s in the net, it’s on you. I love that pressure and I love that responsibility,” he told the Post. “Yes, it’s also a lonely position, just like sometimes when you’re a CEO it is a lonely position. Although you’re well supported with people around you, at the end of the day, you’re responsible for the success and the failure of the organization.”
The extent of his goaltending prowess is unclear, though it’s apparent he’s so far helped stop Saputo Inc. from following the tradition of third-generation family business decay.
“In the United States, a familiar aphorism — ‘Shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations’ — describes the propensity of family-owned enterprises to fail by the time the founder’s grandchildren have taken charge,” wrote George Stalk Jr. and Henry Foley in the Harvard Business Review in 2012. “Some 70 per cent of family-owned businesses fail or are sold before the second generation gets a chance to take over… In many ways, leading a family-owned business has never been harder.”
“We’re very fortunate that we’ve gotten very good at acquisitions,” Saputo Jr. told the Financial Post in 2019 when he was named Canada’s Outstanding CEO of the Year. “First and foremost, it’s through the due diligence process that we recognize how important it is to integrate effectively. I would say that we’ve looked at over 300 files and we’ve only made 31 acquisitions since we went public in 1997, so we have looked at a lot of files and we’ve walked away from a lot more files than we’ve materialized.”
Overall, Saputo Inc. posted revenue of $14.2 billion for the fiscal year ended March 2021 (down slightly from $14.9 billion in 2020), with $6.1 billion of 2021 revenue coming from the U.S., its largest geographic source of sales. Adjusted net earnings in 2021 were $715 million, down from $724 million in 2020.
Saputo Jr., now in his mid-50s, has been with the family-controlled company for 33 years, including nearly two decades as chief executive. According to a 2019 profile in the Globe and Mail, he has a constantly revolving collection of luxury cars, with a particular affinity for 1980s-era Porsches. A hockey fanatic, he built a private three-on-three rink that’s also used for a yearly company hockey tournament.
Saputo Jr., who plays goalie, says he enjoys the hot seat because “the puck stops with you.”
“No matter how many mistakes the people in front of you make, if the puck’s in the net, it’s on you. I love that pressure and I love that responsibility,” he told the Post. “Yes, it’s also a lonely position, just like sometimes when you’re a CEO it is a lonely position. Although you’re well supported with people around you, at the end of the day, you’re responsible for the success and the failure of the organization.”
The extent of his goaltending prowess is unclear, though it’s apparent he’s so far helped stop Saputo Inc. from following the tradition of third-generation family business decay.
“In the United States, a familiar aphorism — ‘Shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations’ — describes the propensity of family-owned enterprises to fail by the time the founder’s grandchildren have taken charge,” wrote George Stalk Jr. and Henry Foley in the Harvard Business Review in 2012. “Some 70 per cent of family-owned businesses fail or are sold before the second generation gets a chance to take over… In many ways, leading a family-owned business has never been harder.”
I don’t take anything for granted at all. It forces me to work a little harderLINO SAPUTO JR.
Saputo Jr. told the Post he is familiar with the third-generation curse or, as he put it, “rags to riches to rags.”
“I don’t want to be the third generation that brings in that factor. I’m mindful of that every single day so I don’t take anything for granted at all. It forces me to work a little harder.”
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