LISTERIA recall...McCain apologizes for Maple Leaf listeria outbreak in August, 2008

On Aug. 23, a Toronto Maple Leaf Foods plant was confirmed as being involved in the outbreak of the food-borne illness, caused by the bacterium Listeria monocytogenes. A day later, Maple Leaf upgraded a precautionary recall of 23 of its products, issued the previous week, to all 220 packaged meats from the plant, which has now been shut down. 

Michael McCain, the CEO of Maple Leaf Foods at a news conference in August 2008. (CBC)

The company had been highly visible since the crisis hit. The firm's CEO, Michael McCain, held press conferences and posted an apology on its web site. A company spokeswoman did interviews in a wide range of media. The firm also ran TV spots and took out advertisements in newspapers.


Ever since the illness outbreak, there are several testings that are conducted on the company products in order to ensure safe and healthy consumption by the consumers. The company is making all efforts to build trust, honest support and credibility in order to regain its lost customers.


As a result of the listeria outbreak, Maple Leaf's reputation score dropped from 66 out of 100 to 8 out of 100, as per the 2009 Marketing/Leger Corporate Reputation Survey. However, the CEO decided to convey his empathy and resolve at fixing the listeria outbreak. This act of official apology by the firm's CEO helped the company recover from negative publicity. As a result of this apology, the company's reputation score went up to 40 out of 100, with 63 percent of Canadians positively opinionated of the company. 
                                                                                                                                          
The real question is: Were the company profits sliced off as a result of Listeria outbreak? 
On its way to recover from the effects of the listeria outbreak, the company profits suffered a downfall in its share prices and year ending profit, 2008. However, the CEO's apology created a positive opinion among people, consuming the firm's products, which aspired the company profits to raise again. According to analysts, Maple Leaf shares rose up 42 cents up 3.9 percent at $10.88 CAD on the Toronto Stock Exchange, after an year of the listeria outbreak. Even after the listeria outbreak in 2008, Maple Leaf Food Inc. has gradually returned to profitability.The company is actively working on initiatives to improve their business in order to set upright the company's growth.

MAPLE LEAF FOODS INC. share price change from July, 2008 to Nov, 2009

The graph above shows that, although, the share prices started falling after the listeria outbreak in 2008, the prices for Maple Leaf Foods Inc. started rising up to $11.23 CAD. Quarterly revenues unveiled an increase in figures, too, eventually giving rise to company profits.

Information gathered from: Guffey, E., Rhodes, K., Rogin, P. (Eds.). (2008). Business Communications (6^th ed.). Toronto: Nelson., and
http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/q/hp?s=MFI.TO&a=06&b=30&c=2008&d=11&e=31&f=2009&g=m
http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/story/2008/08/27/f-crisisresponse.html
http://www.thestar.com/business/article/717348--maple-leaf-foods-recovers-from-listeria-crisis