In an effort to better serve the Western Canadian market, one of Canada's leading dairy companies will be relocating its Metro Vancouver facilities to a new location.

Quebec-based Saputo announced in its 2018 fiscal report released on June 7 that it will sell its Burnaby dairy plant to a buyer, which hasn't been identified, for $218 million.

As part of its plans to modernize its facilities and improve efficiency, the company will begin building a new state-of-the-art processing plant for approximately $240 million in Port Coquitlam, which is expected to be completed within the next three years.

The Burnaby sale is expected to close in the 2019 fiscal year. Saputo will lease that facility from the new owner while the Port Coquitlam location is being constructed.

Saputo purchased Burnaby-based Dairyworld Foods, which offers products under the Dairyland brand, for $407 million in 2001.

The company previously closed three plants—in Ottawa, Ontario; Princeville, Quebec; Sydney, Nova Scotia—in 2016, resulting in the loss of 230 jobs.

The company, which began as an Italian-style cheesemaking company in Montreal in 1954, has become one of the top 10 dairy processors in the world.

The company reported net earnings of $852.5 million net earnings on $11.54 billion in revenues for its fiscal year ending on March 31, which was an increase of 16.6 percent from 2017 ($731.1 million net earnings on $11.16 billion in revenues in 2017).