Scotsburn sells off its fluid milk business to Saputo

Scotsburn Co-operative Services Limited has sold its fluid milk business to Saputo Inc. for $61 million.

The sale includes the facilities in Sydney, N.S., and Mount Pearl, N.L., and the fluid milk distribution network in Atlantic Canada.

The co-op will vote on the agreement later this month. Scotsburn said the deal is expected to wrap up in March.

President Doug Ettinger said he can’t say how the deal will affect the overall job picture.

“It's too early to tell.  The deal, as I said, doesn't close until March and then there's going to be a transition so we're going to have to figure all that out.  But I can say this, on the ice cream side of the business, we're commissioning a leading-edge, high-tech line in Truro that we're hiring people for right now and we're in a growth mode on ice cream so our outlook is very positive in terms of employment,” he said.

The company said it's going to focus on its ice cream.

“This new line that we're commissioning in Truro allows us to make extruded novelties, which is a fancy word for being able to put larger pieces of cookies and brownies and things in an ice cream bar. So it's very leading edge and will allow us to tap into some new opportunities,” said Ettinger

Saputo said the Scotsburn fluid milk business generates around $160 million in sales annually.