Maple Leaf Foods is cutting more than 400 employees – or 11 per cent of its salaried workforce – in a move to reduce costs and streamline the organization.

The meat processing company says the job cuts will be made across the country, with the largest impact in Mississauga, where the company’s corporate headquarters is located.

The majority of the cuts will be completed before the end of the year, with the remainder in 2016. Shop floor positions are not part of the downsizing.

It's just the latest round of cuts for a company that has spent much of the past seven years slashing its workforce, merging facilities and selling off other divisions in a $1-billion attempt to return to profitability.

Many of those efforts were centred on the opening of a new super-facility in Hamilton that spans 402,000 square feet, where some of the latest layoffs will take place. The new plant produces about 22,000 million packages of cold cuts annually and 750 packs of hot dogs every minute.

A spokesman said the company was mindful that the news comes at a particularly difficult time heading into the holiday season.

“It’s always a consideration, and getting ahead of the month of December was part of that,” said David Bauer, Maple Leaf’s director of public affairs.

“People affected will be treated fairly and respectfully,” he said.

The cuts come as the company nears the end of a massive restructuring plan.

“We expected this in our 2015 planning, however we are always looking for ways to remain cost competitive,” Bauer added.

The company has been reducing costs by combining some of its plants and closing others as well as reducing its number of distribution centres.

Maple Leaf says it employs roughly 12,000 people across Canada. The latest move affects about 3 per cent of the meat manufacturer’s total workforce.

“Maple Leaf is in an enviable position,” chief executive Michael McCain said in a statement.

“The ramp up of our new world-class supply chain is nearing completion (and) we have a portfolio of market-leading products and brands,” he said.

“We are taking important steps to reduce costs and redirect resources to those areas providing the greatest opportunity for business expansion,” added McCain.

Talk of tangible growth has been almost unheard of at Maple Leaf Foods over the past three years as it sunk into regular quarterly losses and started reassessing priorities.

In October, the company reported profits for only the second time in 11 quarters, with net earnings of $18.7 million on slightly lower overall sales.

But analysts were focused at the time on Maple Leaf Foods delaying its earnings growth targets as a percentage of revenue until 2016, from original plans to reach that goal by this year, which suggested a solid recovery was further away than hoped.

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Maple Leaf has been chipping away at its workforce for several years, partly through massive job reductions, which included a net loss of 1,550 positions in 2011, as well as much smaller cuts incorporated into its consolidation moves.

Overall, the company has shrunk the number of its national meat plants by nearly half to 13 and consolidated into two distribution centres, where previously it had 19.