Canada Bread Company, Ltd. is a Canadian producer and distributor of packaged fresh bread and bakery products. The company operates 17 bakeries and employs over 4,800 employees across Canada.
Purchased by
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 ...
(BIMBOA:Mexico) on May 23, 2014 for CAD$1.83 billion, Canada Bread is currently led by Alejandro Pintado, President, and operates as an independent business unit of the global baking company.
Logo
The logo is a combination of a "CB" (the company's initials), a Maple Leaf, and a wheat shoot. Designer: Phil Slous.
History

Canada Bread was founded in June 1911 following the merger of five of Canada's leading baking companies: Bredin Bread Company, Model Bakery (founded by
George Weston), Toronto Bakery, Stuarts Limited and Boyd's Bakery. The founders of these bakeries agreed not to compete in bread for ten years. Weston and Stuart immediately formed new baking companies making biscuits and cakes. Weston Bakeries reentered the bread market in 1921, becoming over time a major competitor to Canada Bread.
Over a span of 30 years, the company quickly grew, purchasing over 20 bakeries in a dozen cities across the country and establishing new bakery locations in
Kingston, Ontario
Kingston is a city in Ontario, Canada. It is located on the north-eastern end of Lake Ontario, at the beginning of the St. Lawrence River and at the mouth of the Cataraqui River (south end of the Rideau Canal). The city is midway between Toront ...
,
Cornwall, Ontario
Cornwall is a city in Eastern Ontario, Canada, situated where the provinces of Ontario and Quebec and the state of New York converge. It is the seat of the United Counties of Stormont, Dundas, and Glengarry and is Ontario's easternmost city.
...
,
Kirkland Lake, Ontario
Kirkland Lake is a town and municipality in Timiskaming District in Northeastern Ontario, Canada. The 2016 population, according to Statistics Canada, was 7,981.
The community name was based on a nearby lake which in turn was named after Winnifr ...
,
Chatham, Ontario and
Sudbury, Ontario
Sudbury, officially the City of Greater Sudbury is the largest city in Northern Ontario by population, with a population of 166,004 at the 2021 Canadian Census. By land area, it is the largest in Ontario and the fifth largest in Canada. It is ...
. In 1968, the company acquired Dempster's Bread Limited, which had become the nation's best-selling brand of bread. It followed this acquisition in 1969 by changing the name of the company to Corporate Foods Limited, but later reverted to Canada Bread Company, Limited in 1997. Quebec-based
Multi-Marques, with its brand POM, was acquired in 2001.
In May 2014, Canada Bread was purchased from
Maple Leaf Foods
Maple Leaf Foods Inc. is a Canadian consumer packaged meats company. Its head office is in Mississauga, Ontario.
History
Maple Leaf Foods is the result of the 1991 merger between Canada Packers and Maple Leaf Mills.
Canada Packers was ...
by Mexican-based bakery organization,
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 ...
. Less than a year later, in February 2015, Canada Bread acquired the bakery division of
Saputo Inc.,
Vachon Bakery
Vachon Bakery is a Canadian maker of popular snack pastries. Vachon was owned by Saputo Inc. between 1999 and 2015, and has been owned by Canada Bread since 2015.
Vachon was founded by Joseph-Arcade and Rose-Anna Vachon Giroux in 1923 when the c ...
(which had purchased Stuart in 1979), for CAD$120 million. In March 2015, Canada Bread also acquired two former
Sobeys
Sobeys Inc. is the second largest supermarket chain in Canada, with over 1,500 stores operating across Canada under a variety of banners. Headquartered in Stellarton, Nova Scotia, it operates stores in all ten provinces and accumulated sales o ...
bakeries located in
Winnipeg, Manitoba
Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749 ...
and
Calgary, Alberta
Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Canadian Prairies, Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population ...
in
Western Canada
Western Canada, also referred to as the Western provinces, Canadian West or the Western provinces of Canada, and commonly known within Canada as the West, is a Canadian region that includes the four western provinces just north of the Canada� ...
.
In May 2016, Canada Bread announced it was closing its
North Bay, Ontario
North Bay is a city in Northeastern Ontario, Canada. It is the seat of Nipissing District, Ontario, Nipissing District, and takes its name from its position on the shore of Lake Nipissing. North Bay developed as a railroad centre, and its airpo ...
location after nearly 50 years of operation in the city; to be divested across other Canada Bread locations.
References
External links
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{{Bimbo
Bakeries of Canada
Grupo Bimbo brands
Grupo Bimbo subsidiaries
Canadian brands
Canadian subsidiaries of foreign companies
Food and drink companies established in 1911
1911 establishments in Canada