Dairy Buzz

Well, it is after all his father’s business so he has a right to get to the very top. But talk to Lino Saputo Jr. who runs Saputo Cheese and you’ll come away thinking that he well and truly deserves to be where he is. Saputo Cheese is a giant in Canada and is a $5 billion company. And yet, all around, you’ll see vestiges of its family-run status, never mind that the network spans 47 dairy and cheese plants all over Canada. It’s a huge operation but it is run like a family business and there seems to be steering clear of the MBA kind of culture.

Well, this 42-year old cheese expert is doing the same thing his grandfather and his father did before him. He’s making his kids learn all about dairy and cheese right from the grassroots level up. That’s the only way, he feels, that one can hope to make the business a success. He doesn’t believe too much in academic qualifications and he feels that in this field, it is experience and a passion for the product that counts. With his grandfather being a trained cheese maker before he migrated to Canada from Sicily, it was the obvious choice when it came to business and he doesn’t see it as being anything other than a family kind of business for years to come.