Grupo Bimbo
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Grupo Bimbo S.A.B. de C.V. | |
|---|---|
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| Type | Public (BMV: BIMBO) |
| Founded | 1945 |
| Headquarters |  Mexico City, Mexico |
| Key people | Daniel Servitje Montull (CEO) |
| Industry | Food processing |
| Products | Bread products, candies, etc. |
| Website | www.grupobimbo.com |
Grupo Bimbo is a giant Mexican food corporation with brands in Latin America, Europe, China and the United States.
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[edit] History
Grupo Bimbo was established in Mexico in 1945, today it is one of the most important baking companies in brand and trademark positioning, sales, and production volume around the world. The company is currently #4 among the largest food corporations in the world, behind Unilever, Sara Lee and Nestlé. The company has plans to become the world's largest bread manufacturing company by 2010, with its expansion in China central to this effort. The company reported $5.26 billion in sales during 2006, a steep increase from the $4.67 billion in sales in 2004. The company has forecasted this year's sales to be $6.5 billion, and $7.73 billion by the end of the 2007 fiscal year. In Mexico and Latin America, the company is the market share leader, selling over 5000 products under more than 100 different brands.
Since 1980, Grupo Bimbo has been traded in the Mexican Stock Exchange. It comprises six organizations and a corporate department that operates companies in the baking industry and in general, in the food industry. The company also makes the majority of the machinery used in its factories through its industrial development branch, as well as a large part of the plastic packaging they use on their products.
The name "Bimbo" has no specific meaning in Mexican Spanish; thus, the name has not caused significant uproar as it would in the United States, where the word "bimbo" has a negative connotation. The official version has it that the name Bimbo, coined in 1945 when the company was rebranded from its previous name, Super Pan S.A., was chosen because the company thought it competed well with the existing Bambi and Dumbo brands in Mexico. In addition, the innocent, childlike name went well with the brand image they wanted to build. At the time they changed their name to Bimbo, another small bakery from Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua had had the same name some years ago, so they talked to the owner of these bakeries who yielded the name of "Bimbo" to this new big company.
In 1964, Grupo Bimbo introduced sliced bread in Spain. Even today it is called informally pan bimbo instead of the official pan de molde or pan de caja. In 1978, the Mexican group sold all its shares and the Spanish firm operates independently[1] The Portuguese and Spanish Bimbo were acquired by Sara Lee in 2001[2]
The corporate image, a small white teddy bear, was inspired by a Christmas card sent by the grandson of the company's founder to his grandmother during the early 1950's. The teddy bear in the picture was thought to be ideal as Bimbo's corporate image, and was, literally, stripped from any clothes and applied only a white apron and a chef's hat. In order to represent Grupo Bimbo, which also encompasses non-food related companies, a new more traditional and mainstream logo was developed. However, the white teddy bear remains the image the general public most relates to Bimbo as a brand.
[edit] Brands
- Barcel - Mexican brand producing potato chips and other fried foods
- Bimbo - Producing cakes and bread. Bimbo breads and cakes are often found in major United States cities with large Mexican and Mexican-American populations.
- Cena - Chilean budget bread brand
- Coronado - Milk caramel producer since 1932
- El Globo - Mexican bakery founded in 1884 (bought in 2005)
- Entenmann's - Pastry baker in the United States
- Ideal - Chilean bread brand, Bimbo brand is not used, but Ideal shares the same logo as Bimbo
- Marinela - Mexican cookies producer founded around 1950. In Colombia known as Marisela
- Mrs Baird's - A bakery with a large presence in Texas
- Oroweat - Bread producer
- Plus Vita - Brazilian bread and cakes producer
- Pullman - Brazilian bread and cakes producer
- Ricolino - Candy and chocolates producer
- Suandy - Bread producer
- Swandy - Butter cookies producer
- Tía Rosa - Home-flavor bread and cookies
- Wonder - Bread producer
[edit] References
- ^ Historia de Bimbo at the Bimbo Spanish Website.
- ^ Sara Lee at the Bimbo Spanish Website.
[edit] External links
- Official Site
- About Bimbo at the corporations site.
- Company website in United States
