Bimbo Bakeries USA, Inc. () is the American corporate arm of the
Mexican multinational bakery product manufacturing company
Grupo Bimbo
Grupo Bimbo, S.A.B. de C.V. (also known simply as Bimbo) is a Mexican multinational company with a presence in over 33 countries located in the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa. It has an annual sales volume of 15 billion dollars and is currentl ...
. It is the largest bakery company in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
.
The company, headquartered in
Horsham,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
, a suburb of
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
, owns many fresh bread and sweet baked goods brands in the United States, including
Entenmann's
Entenmann's is an American company that manufactures baked goods and delivers them throughout the United States to supermarkets and other retailers for sale to the public. The company offers dessert cakes, donuts, cookies, cup cakes, loaf cakes, ...
,
Sara Lee
Sara may refer to:
Arts, media and entertainment Film and television
* Sara (1992 film), ''Sara'' (1992 film), 1992 Iranian film by Dariush Merhjui
* Sara (1997 film), ''Sara'' (1997 film), 1997 Polish film starring Bogusław Linda
* Sara (2010 ...
, and
Thomas'
Thomas' is a brand of English muffins and bagels in North America, established in 1880. It is owned by Bimbo Bakeries USA, one of the largest baking companies in the United States, which also owns Entenmann's, Boboli, Sara Lee, Stroehmann, and ...
.
It is also a top advertising sponsor for many major soccer teams around the globe.
Name
The name "Bimbo" was first coined in 1945 when the company switched from Super Pan S.A. A blend of the words "bingo" and "Bambi", the name's innocent, childlike associations fit the image that the company wished to build. The English word "
bimbo
Bimbo is slang for a conventionally attractive, sexualized, naive, and unintelligent woman. The term was originally used in the United States as early as 1919 for an unintelligent or brutish man.
As of the early 21st century, the "stereotypic ...
", with its negative connotations, has no
cognate
In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymology, etymological ancestor in a proto-language, common parent language. Because language c ...
in Spanish.
History
Bimbo Bakeries USA's story began in 1994, when Grupo Bimbo – Mexico's largest baking company, with operations in 21 countries – purchased La Hacienda, a California-based tortilla company. Bimbo Bakeries USA then entered the U.S. bread market in 1997 with the acquisition of Pacific Pride Bakeries of San Diego.
The company grew again in 1998 with the purchase of Mrs Baird's Bakeries in Texas, which at the time was the largest family-owned bakery in the U.S. The combined operations were renamed Bimbo Bakeries USA (BBU).
In 2002, BBU acquired the Western U.S. baking business of George Weston Ltd., adding such iconic premium brands as Oroweat, Entenmann's, Thomas’, and Boboli. In 2009, Grupo Bimbo purchased the remaining U.S. fresh baked goods business of George Weston Ltd., adding brands such as Arnold, Brownberry, Freihofer's, and Stroehmann.
In 2011, BBU completed its largest acquisition to date: Sara Lee's North American fresh bakery business. Adding Sara Lee's bread business doubled BBU in size.
In 2020, BBU acquired
Lender's Bagels
Lender's Bagels is a brand of bagels that pioneered the pre-packaged bagel industry in the United States. Established in 1927 in New Haven, Connecticut by the Lender family, it became a North American leader in the marketing, distribution and sale ...
from
Conagra Brands
Conagra Brands, Inc. (formerly ConAgra Foods) is an American consumer packaged goods holding company headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Conagra makes and sells products under various brand names that are available in supermarkets, restaurants, ...
Today, BBU operates more than 60 bakeries, employs more than 20,000 workers, and distributes products through 11,000 sales routes throughout the United States.
Kosher certification
In 2018, the company announced that it would not be renewing its
Kosher certification
A hechsher (; he, הֶכְשֵׁר "prior approval"; plural: ''hechsherim'') is a rabbinical product certification, qualifying items (usually foods) that conform to the requirements of halakha.
Forms
A hechsher may be a printed and signed certif ...
. As the largest baking company in the US, the decision caused significant concern amongst
American Jews
American Jews or Jewish Americans are American citizens who are Jewish, whether by religion, ethnicity, culture, or nationality. Today the Jewish community in the United States consists primarily of Ashkenazi Jews, who descend from diaspora J ...
, especially those who live outside areas with significant Jewish populations. Kosher breads are required to be non-dairy unless explicitly labelled because Jewish dietary restrictions prohibit consuming
dairy
A dairy is a business enterprise established for the harvesting or processing (or both) of animal milk – mostly from cows or buffaloes, but also from goats, sheep, horses, or camels – for human consumption. A dairy is typically located on ...
and
meat
Meat is animal flesh that is eaten as food. Humans have hunted, farmed, and scavenged animals for meat since prehistoric times. The establishment of settlements in the Neolithic Revolution allowed the domestication of animals such as chic ...
at the same meal. Kosher bread is thus almost always
pareve
In ''kashrut'', the dietary laws of Judaism, pareve (from yi, פאַרעוו for "neutral", in Hebrew , and also parve and other variant English spellings) is a classification of edible substances that contain neither dairy nor meat ingredients. ...
. The company said they wanted the option to produce bread on factory lines that might include dairy products, which they are not able to do if they remain kosher certified.
Nationwide expansion
![Stroehmann in Harrisburg jeh](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/36/Stroehmann_in_Harrisburg_jeh.jpg)
On December 10, 2008, it was announced that Grupo Bimbo was in negotiations to purchase Weston Foods Inc., a subsidiary of
George Weston Ltd.
George Weston Limited, often referred to as Weston or Weston's, is a Canadian food processing and distribution company. Founded by George Weston in 1882, the company today consists of Weston Foods, a wholly owned subsidiary, and Loblaw Companie ...
for $2.38 billion, a purchase that would make Bimbo Bakeries USA the largest bakery company in the USA. The purchase was finalized on January 21, 2009. The acquisition added brands such as
Arnold,
Brownberry,
Freihofer's,
Stroehmann, and gave Bimbo the rights to the Weston brands in the eastern United States (it had controlled the Weston brands in the western United States since 2002). The purchase also added 22 more factories and 4,000 delivery trucks, giving Bimbo Bakeries USA 35 factories and over 7,000 sales routes in the United States, along with a footprint in
all of the lower 48 states and almost
US$
The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
4 billion in annual sales. The Weston Foods headquarters in
Horsham, Pennsylvania
Horsham is a home rule municipality in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 14,842 at the 2010 census. Horsham is located entirely within Horsham Township, and it is home to the Horsham Air Guard Station at the form ...
(just outside
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
) became the new headquarters for Bimbo's USA operations, relocating from
Fort Worth, Texas
Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. According ...
, when the deal closed.
Soccer sponsorship
In an effort to increase its national exposure, on January 11, 2011, Bimbo announced a four-year partnership agreement making it the official jersey sponsor of the
Philadelphia Union
The Philadelphia Union are an American professional soccer club based in Chester, Pennsylvania. The Union compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference. Founded on February 28, 2008, the club began playing in 201 ...
, the
Major League Soccer
Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...
(MLS) team local to their national headquarters. The Union sponsorship agreement marks the fifth professional soccer team sponsored by Bimbo; the parent company Grupo Bimbo sponsors the following five teams:
Rochester Rhinos
Rochester New York FC, formerly known as the Rochester Rhinos, are an American professional soccer team based in Rochester, New York, United States.
Founded in 1996, as the Rochester Raging Rhinos, they changed their name to Rochester Rhinos t ...
,
Club América,
C.D. Guadalajara
Club Deportivo Guadalajara (); often simply known as Guadalajara () and their nickname ''Chivas'' (), is a Mexican professional football club based in Zapopan, Jalisco. Guadalajara is one of the ten founding members of the Mexican First Divi ...
and
C.F. Monterrey
Club de Fútbol Monterrey, often known simply as Monterrey or their nickname Rayados, is a Mexican professional football club based in Monterrey, Nuevo León which currently plays in Liga MX, the top tier of Mexican football. Founded on 28 ...
of the
Primera División de México
The Liga MX, officially known as the Liga BBVA MX for sponsorship reasons, is the top professional Association football, football division in Mexico, holding 2 tournaments per year.
The league is considered the strongest in North America, and amo ...
teams, and
C.D. Saprissa
Deportivo Saprissa is a Costa Rican sports club, mostly known for its football team. The club is based in San Juan de Tibás, San José, and play their home games at the Estadio Ricardo Saprissa Aymá. The team's signature colours are purple ...
of
Costa Rica
Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...
. The deal also makes Bimbo the official bread and baked goods sponsor of the Union and MLS. Bimbo will become an official sponsor of MLS, opening MLS League and Club marketing assets, such as stadium signage, to the company.
The sponsorship deal is valued at roughly US$12 million over the four-year period.
[
]
Sara Lee acquisition
On November 9, 2010, Grupo Bimbo announced that it had agreed to acquire the North American fresh bakery business of the
Sara Lee Corporation
The Sara Lee Corporation was an American consumer-goods company based in Downers Grove, Illinois. It had operations in more than 40 countries and sold its products in over 180 countries. Its international operations were headquartered in Utrecht ...
. The transaction, which was subject to regulatory review, would combine the largest and third-largest baking companies in the United States, as measured by annual sales. The deal was reported as costing
US$
The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
959 million. This acquisition left Bimbo Bakeries USA with 75 bakeries in 31 states, serving the entire continental United States through more than 13,000 sales routes.
The acquisition was estimated to bring about US$2.1 billion in sales to Bimbo Bakeries USA, for a rough total of US$6 billion. This would make Bimbo Bakeries USA more than twice as large as the number-two bakery company in the United States,
Flowers Foods
Flowers Foods, headquartered in Thomasville, Georgia, is a producer and marketer of packed bakery food. The company operates 47 bakeries producing bread, buns, rolls, snack cakes, pastries, and tortillas. Flowers Foods' products are sold reg ...
.
Sara Lee Corp. acquired its fresh-baked division in 2001 with the acquisition of Earthgrains for a then industry record of
US$
The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
2.8 billion. This sale represents a 66% discount.
In November 2011, Sara Lee Corporation completed the sale of its North American fresh bakery business to Grupo Bimbo for $709 million.
Sara Lee also sold its fresh-bakery businesses in Spain and Portugal to Grupo Bimbo for 115 million euros ($158.3 million), in a deal announced in October, 2011. That acquisition was expected to close by the end of 2011.
Bimbo Bakeries was required to sell off some of its assets by the
antitrust division of the
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United State ...
. The following operations were sold:
* Earthgrains and Healthy Choice in Omaha were sold to Pan-O-Gold in May 2012.
*
Holsum and Milano in Harrisburg and Scranton were sold to
Schmidt Baking Company
Schmidt Baking Company is a bakery in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. The company makes Schmidt's Blue Ribbon and Schmidt's Old Tyme Breads and, as a licensee of the Quality Bakers of America Cooperative, bakes and distributes Sunbeam Bread in its terr ...
in May 2012.
*Sara Lee and Earthgrains in California and Earthgrains in Oklahoma City were sold to Flowers Foods in October 2012.
The EarthGrains and Mrs Baird's brands in Kansas City have yet to be sold.
Main brands
* Arnold – Producer of loaf bread primarily sold throughout the United States
* Ball Park – Producer of buns & rolls
*Bays – Producer of English muffins
* Beefsteak – Producer of bread
* Bimbo – Producing cakes and bread, found in major United States cities with large
Hispanic
The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad.
The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to Vic ...
and
Hispanic-American
Hispanic and Latino Americans ( es, Estadounidenses hispanos y latinos; pt, Estadunidenses hispânicos e latinos) are Americans of Spanish and/or Latin American ancestry. More broadly, these demographics include all Americans who identify as ...
populations
* Boboli – Producer of ready-made pizza crusts
* Brownberry – Producer of loaf bread primarily sold throughout the United States
"Making dough with an original recipe"
/ref>
* Colombo – Producer of sweet and sourdough bread products. Formerly Colombo Baking Company
Colombo Baking Company was a bakery founded in 1896, known for its sourdough bread. Located at 580 Julie Ann Way in Oakland, California, it became a wholly owned division of Hostess Brands. Colombo sourdough rolls were manufactured at a satellite ...
.
* EarthGrains – Producer of loaf bread primarily sold throughout the United States
* Entenmann's
Entenmann's is an American company that manufactures baked goods and delivers them throughout the United States to supermarkets and other retailers for sale to the public. The company offers dessert cakes, donuts, cookies, cup cakes, loaf cakes, ...
– Pastry baker in the United States
* Francisco – Producer of bread and rolls
* Freihofer's – Producer of bread and cakes most commonly found in upstate New York
* Grandma Sycamore's – Producer of homemade breads, based in Utah and found in the intermountain west area
* J.J. Nissen – Producer of bread commonly found in New England
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...
* Lender's Bagels
Lender's Bagels is a brand of bagels that pioneered the pre-packaged bagel industry in the United States. Established in 1927 in New Haven, Connecticut by the Lender family, it became a North American leader in the marketing, distribution and sale ...
– Producer of bagels
* Marinela – Producer of Mexican cookies and pastry
* Mrs. Baird's – A leading bakery primarily present in Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
and surrounding states
* Old Country – Restaurant bread
* Oroweat – Producer of loaf bread primarily sold throughout the United States
* Sara Lee
Sara may refer to:
Arts, media and entertainment Film and television
* Sara (1992 film), ''Sara'' (1992 film), 1992 Iranian film by Dariush Merhjui
* Sara (1997 film), ''Sara'' (1997 film), 1997 Polish film starring Bogusław Linda
* Sara (2010 ...
– North America Fresh Bakery unit only.
* Stroehmann – Producer of loaf bread in the United States
* Thomas'
Thomas' is a brand of English muffins and bagels in North America, established in 1880. It is owned by Bimbo Bakeries USA, one of the largest baking companies in the United States, which also owns Entenmann's, Boboli, Sara Lee, Stroehmann, and ...
– Producer of English muffins and bagels
* Tía Rosa – Producer of home-style bread, pastry, and tortillas
* Barcel – Producer of takis Takis may refer to:
* Takis (snack), a spicy, roll-shaped snack
* Takis Christoforidis, a Greek actor
* Takis Fotopoulos, a Greek political philosopher
* Takis Ikonomopoulos, a Greek football player
* Takis Kanellopoulos a Greek film director
* T ...
, takis kettlez, and associated varieties.
See also
* List of bakeries
This is a list of notable bakeries. A bakery is an establishment that produces and sells flour-based food baked in an oven such as bread, cakes, pastries, and pies. Some retail bakeries are also cafés, serving coffee and tea to customers wh ...
* List of brand name breads
This is a list of brand name breads.
Brand name breads
* Allinson
* Alvarado Street Bakery
* Bimbo Bakeries USA – Arnold, Ball Park, Beefsteak, Bimbo, Brownberry, EarthGrains, Entenmann's, Eureka! Baking Company, Francisco, Freihofer's, G ...
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bimbo Bakeries Usa
Grupo Bimbo subsidiaries
Bakeries of the United States
Companies based in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania
Food and drink companies established in 1996
1996 establishments in Pennsylvania
American subsidiaries of foreign companies