Grupo Bimbo

Grupo Bimbo, S.A.B. de C.V., together with its subsidiaries, produces, distributes, and sells various bakery products. The company offers sliced bread, buns and rolls, pastries, cakes, cookies, toast bread, English muffins, bagels, tortillas and flatbreads, salty snacks, and confectionery products. It provides its products under approximately 100 brands. The company operates 206 bakeries and other plants and approximately 1,600 sales centers in 33 countries, including Mexico, the United States, Canada, Latin America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. The company was founded in 1945 and is headquartered in Mexico City, Mexico with additional locations in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, France, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Italy, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Morocco, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, Uruguay, the United States, and Venezuela.

Grupo Bimbo began operations in Mexico City on December 2, 1945, with Panificación Bimbo, S.A. as the official name. The company started with 34 employees, selling cellophane-wrapped large and small white loaf bread, rye bread, and toast bread. Lorenzo Servitje Sendra, José T. Mata, Jaime Sendra Grimau, Jaime Jorba Sendra, and Alfonso Velasco, were the partners who started the bakery company.The name "Bimbo" was chosen among other candidates such as PanRex, Pan NSE , Sabrosoy, Pan Lirio, and Pan Azteca. The name was formed as the combination of the Bambi and Dumbo films, the favourite films of Marinela, Lorenzo Servitje's daughter. Later, the founders would find out that bimbo is an Italian slang for children , and that in China the phoneme for bread is similar to the name of the brand.The brand's ambassador, the Bimbo Bear, was also created in 1945. It all began with a bear drawing in a Christmas Card given to Jaime Jorba. Anita Mata, Jaime Sendra's wife, was the one who added distinct features such as the hat, the apron, and the bread under its arm. Finally, Alfonso Velasco rearranged the shape of the nose to reflect the cleanness, whiteness, and softness.By 1948, Grupo Bimbo had nine different products like white bread, toast bread, black bread, sweet bread, buns, and muffins. Thanks to the production growth, in 1949, the first branch outside of Mexico City was opened in Puebla, Mexico.By the 1950s, Grupo Bimbo took its products to more people with the "38", a delivery truck with speakers that helped promote the products. Shortly afterward, the portfolio extended with the addition of Bimbo Bear Donuts, Bimbollos, Medias Noches , and Colchones.On its tenth anniversary, in 1955, Grupo Bimbo had 700 employees and 140 vehicles. In 1956, the company opened Bimbo de Occidente factory with Roberto Servitje as its general manager, and, in 1958, launched Gansito, a chocolate-covered snack cake filled with strawberry jam and cream.

In the 1960s, Grupo Bimbo kept expanding with its arrival in Monterrey, Mexico, and its first administrative restructuring in 1963, which lead to the creation of its corporate structure. A year later, in 1964, the company acquired the rights in Mexico of Quality Bakers of America's brand, Sunbeam.In the 1970s, the company had significant growth in several areas. In 1971, Barcel, one of its most important brands, began operations; In 1972, it opened its bakery plant located in Azcapotzalco, Mexico City, the largest in Latin America and one of the ten largest in the world, at the time.During this decade, Grupo Bimbo entered the marmalade market with Carmel ; inaugurated Suandy and Tía Rosa , began the production of Conchas Bimbo ; and launched Ricolino, the company's leading sweets and chocolate brand, and Bubulubu with it . By the end of the 1970s, Grupo Bimbo was formed by 3 companies, 12 plants, and 15,000 employees; during this time, Roberto Servitje was appointed CEO.

At the beginning of the 1980s, Grupo Bimbo presented relevant internal and external changes. It started quoting on the Mexican Stock Exchange, trading 15% of its shares, and in 1986 a new organizational structure was generated, from which a single industrial group was created. In these years, exports to the United States of America began ; Bimbo Centroamerica was created with the construction of a plant in Guatemala, which was completed in 1990.In the early 1990s, Milpa Real tortillas and Lonchibon were added to its brands. In 1993, opened its new corporate building in Santa Fe, Mexico City, and in 1995, acquired Coronado, an enterprise specialized in cajeta-based products. During this decade a further expansion in Latin America took place, with the arrival of Bimbo in Argentina and the opening of the regional corporate , as well as the Ideal plant in Chile . In 1994, Groupo Bimbo purchased La Hacienta, a tortilla maker in California expanding its operations in the U.S. market. In 1997, it furthered its US based offerings to the U.S. bread market with the purchase of Pacific Prides Bakery, San Diego, CA and in 1998 when it purchased Mrs Baird's Bakeries in Texas, Bimbo Bakeries USA was born.

Finally, in 1997, Daniel Servitje was appointed the company's CEO, setting a new course for Grupo Bimbo's operations worldwide.

At the beginning of the 21st century, Grupo Bimbo added brands such as Plus Vita and Pullman in Brazil ; Joyco, the manufacturer of Duvalín, Bocadín and Lunetas ; El Globo and La Corona ; and Nutrella of Brazil to its portfolio.In 2006, the company began operations in the Asian market with the acquisition of the Panrico Bakery in Beijing, China, and strengthen its presence in the United States of America with of George Weston Limited bakery, owner of brands such as Thomas, Oroweat, Arnold, Boboli, Stroehmann and Freihofer's in 2009.

In this decade, Grupo Bimbo consolidated itself as the largest bakery company in the world by acquiring Sara Lee North American Fresh Bakery in the United States; Fargo in Argentina; and Bimbo Iberia in Spain and Portugal, in 2011. A year later, the company completed its most important conversion to renewable energy with the inauguration of the Piedra Larga wind farm , which supplies several of Grupo Bimbo's facilities, as well as its electric vehicles fleet with "green" energy.In the following years, Grupo Bimbo acquired several companies to boost its global growth strategy, some of the most prominent were: in 2014, Canada Bread and Supan ; in 2015, Vachon ; and, in 2016, Panettiere , General Mills and Panrico S.A.U. .In 2017, began operations in África and continued its growth in Africa, with the acquisition of Grupo Adghal in Morocco; East Balt, one of the most important foodservice companies in China, France, Italy, Morocco, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, and the United States; and by purchasing 65% of the Ready India Private Limited's shares. This year, Grupo Bimbo added to its portfolio brands like Bays English Muffins and Stonemill Bakehouse .In 2018, the company continued its expansion and completed the purchase of Nutra Bien brands in Chile and El Paisa in Colombia, in order to grow in South America; Grupo Mankattan, a leader in the baking industry in China, thriving its growth in the fast-food channel in that country. That same year, Grupo Bimbo joined the RE100 initiative, committing to being 100% renewable, energy-wise, by 2025. It also became the first Mexican company to issue Clean Energy Certificates for Distributed Generation.In 2019, it kept promoting some of its corporate social responsibility initiatives like the Good Neighbor program, Reforestamos México , and Limpiemos México . Among these campaigns, Without Leaving Trace stood out, with which Grupo Bimbo committed that 100% of its packaging will be recyclable, biodegradable, and/or compostable by 2025.In February 2020, Grupo Bimbo expanded its operations and arrived in Kazakhstan, through Bimbo QSR , a strategic association agreement was signed with Food Town, the exclusive supplier of buns and McDonald's franchisee in that country. With this agreement, the company expanded its presence to 33 countries.In May 2022, Grupo Bimbo agreed to sell its confectionery business, Ricolino, to the Chicago-headquartered food processing company, Mondel?z International for approximately US$1.3 billion.

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