Greater Toronto's Top Employers (2025) Magazine - Flipbook - Page 92
92
( 2025 )
SPONSOR CONTENT
At Lactalis Canada, career growth is a key priority
I
f you want to know the
extent of career opportunities that employees have at
Lactalis Canada, just ask
Fatima Yumnu.
She joined the global dairy
company, the world’s largest, in
Toronto in 1996. Since then, she’s
held at least seven different roles,
often quite varied, starting on the
factory floor making yoghurt and
ending up – so far, at least – as
environment, health & safety
(EHS) advisor at the company’s
Etobicoke plant. In between, she
worked in sanitary maintenance,
parts ordering, human resources
and various supervisory roles.
“I started young,” she says with
a smile, “and over the years, I’ve
been able to progress in varied
and exciting roles here.”
Throughout, Lactalis Canada
supported her with training,
certificates and tuition for outside
courses as she learned new roles.
At the Etobicoke plant, some 200
employees make yoghurt under
the Astro and siggi’s brands,
while across the country there
are more than 30 operating sites,
concentrated in Québec, Ontario,
Manitoba, Alberta and British
Columbia, employing some 4,500
people. The company’s wellknown brands range from Cracker
Barrel and Black Diamond cheese
to iÖGO yoghurt and Lactantia
and Beatrice milk. Lactalis Canada
says its products can be found in
94 per cent of Canadian homes.
Yumnu doesn’t see her experience as especially unusual. “They
promote internally, so there’s lots
of opportunities,” she says. “I’ve
changed my role every year or
every second year.”
And she’s clearly getting promoted for good reason – in 2023
the plant was honoured internally
with a Canada-wide silver award
Photo goes here
Lactalis Canada gives back to the community by donating its products to local food banks.
for EHS. She credits “our team” for
the no-accident record.
“It’s like a mini family here,”
she says. “It’s a very good group of
people. Everybody supports each
other.”
“They promote internally,
so there’s lots of
opportunities.”
— Fatima Yumnu
Environment, Health
& Safety Advisor
There are opportunities at
every level. Lactalis Canada
president and CEO Mark Taylor
was formerly based in London as
head of Lactalis’ U.K. and Ireland
business. Transferred to Canada to
lead the company during a critical
period of growth and transformation, he expected to stay five years.
Now he’s in year seven and recently got his Canadian citizenship.
“My family and I loved it so much,
we decided to stay,” he says.
And that’s not an unfamiliar
story at France-based Lactalis.
“We’re part of the American zone,
so there’s opportunities for people
to be mobile within Canada and
within the zone, which includes
the U.S., Mexico and South
American countries, and then opportunities to be mobile globally
as well,” says Taylor.
In a multinational company,
employees also gain access to
global insights and best practices,
he notes. “A lot of training takes
place in, say, Italy and France.
So people have the opportunity
to travel on training courses as
well. It’s an important part of the
