Bimbo Bakeries USA

Bimbo Bakeries USA

Type	Subsidiary
Industry	Food processing / distribution
Founded	Fort Worth, Texas, United States (1998 (1998))
Headquarters	Horsham, Pennsylvania, United States
Number of locations	251 outlet stores
Area served	United States / Mexico / Europe / China
Key people	Fred Penny (President) Daniel Servitje (CEO)
Products	Baked Goods
Revenue	$3.9 Billion USD
Operating income	$332.8 Million USD
Total assets	$4.0 Billion USD
Number of employees	15,000
Parent	Grupo Bimbo
Website	http://www.bimbobakeriesusa.com

Bimbo Bakeries USA (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈbimbo]) is the American corporate arm of Mexico's Grupo Bimbo. It is the largest bakery company in the United States.^[1][2] The company, headquartered in Horsham, Pennsylvania, United States in Greater Philadelphia,^[3] owns six of the top twelve fresh bread brands in the United States, and is a top advertising sponsor for many major American-owned soccer teams around the globe.

Name

The name Bimbo was first coined in 1945 when the company switched from Super Pan S.A. A mixing of the words bingo and Bambi.^[4] Bimbo's innocent, childlike associations fit the image the company wished to build. The English word bimbo, with its negative connotations, has no cognates in Spanish.

History

Grupo Bimbo entered the U.S. market with the purchase of Pacific Pride Bakeries in 1996. At the time, Pacific Pride Bakeries was the largest independent baker in the San Diego area. The current company, Bimbo Bakeries USA, was established in 1998 when Grupo Bimbo purchased Mrs. Baird's Bakeries in Texas, which at the time was the largest family owned bakery in the United States, and merged it with the former Pacific Pride Bakeries. At this point, it was renamed Bimbo Bakeries USA and U.S. headquarters were set up in Fort Worth, Texas.^[1] In 2002, Grupo Bimbo made another acquisition when it purchased five plants in California, Texas, Colorado, and Oregon. The purchase also gave Bimbo Bakeries USA the right to such brands as Oroweat, Entenmann's, Thomas', and Boboli in the western United States (the rights in the eastern USA at the time were owned by George Weston Limited).

Nationwide expansion

On December 10, 2008, it was announced that Grupo Bimbo was in negotiations to purchase WFI (Weston Foods Inc.) a subsidiary of George Weston Ltd. 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$4 billion in annual sales.^[5][6] The Weston Foods headquarters in Horsham, Pennsylvania (just outside Philadelphia) became the new headquarters for Bimbo's USA operations, relocating from Fort Worth, Texas, once the deal closed.^[7]

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 Major League Soccer (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 four teams: Club América, C.D. Guadalajara and C.F. Monterrey of the Primera División de México teams, and C.D. Saprissa of Costa Rica. 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.^[8] The sponsorship deal is valued at roughly US$12 million over the four-year period.^[9]

Sara Lee acquisition

On November 9, 2010, Grupo Bimbo announced that it has agreed to acquire the North American Fresh Bakery business of the Sara Lee Corporation. The transaction, which is subject to regulatory review, would combine the largest and third largest baking companies in the United States, as measured by annual sales. The deal is reported as costing US$959 million. This acquisition will leave Bimbo Bakeries USA with 75 bakeries in 31 states, serving the entire continental United States through more than 13,000 sales routes.

The acquisition would bring approximately 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.

Sara Lee Corp. acquired its fresh baked division in 2001 with the acquisition of Earthgrains for a then industry record of US$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.^[10] Sara Lee is also selling 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.^[10]

Bimbo Bakeries was required to sell off some of its assets by the antitrust division of the United States Department of Justice.^[11] The following operations were sold:

• Earthgrains and Healthy Choice in Omaha were sold to Pan-O-Gold in May 2012.^[12]
• Holsum and Milano in Harrisburg and Scranton were sold to Schmidt Baking Company in May 2012.^[12]
• Sara Lee and Earthgrains in California and Earthgrains in Oklahoma City were sold to Flowers Foods in October 2012.^[13]

The EarthGrains and Mrs Baird's brands in Kansas City have yet to be sold.

Main brands

• Arnold/Oroweat – Producer of loaf bread primarily sold throughout the United States.
• Beefsteak - Producer of bread
• Bimbo – Producing cakes and bread. Bimbo breads and cakes are found in major United States cities with large Mexican and Mexican-American populations.
• Boboli – Producer of ready-made pizza crusts.
• Brownberry - Producer of loaf bread primarily sold throughout the United States.
• EarthGrains - Producer of loaf bread primarily sold throughout the United States.
• Entenmann's – 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.
• J.J. Nissen - Producer of bread commonly found in New England
• Marinela – Producer of Mexican cookies.
• Mrs. Baird's – A leading bakery primarily present in Texas and surrounding states.
• Old Country
• Sara Lee
• Stroehmann's – With Oroweat above, a producer of loaf bread in the United States.
• Thomas' – Producer of English muffins and bagels.
• Tía Rosa – Producer of home-style bread, pastry, and tortillas.

Worker safety

The company has been cited for numerous worker safety violations, as well as failure to report worker injuries to California's Division of Occupational Health and Safety. Between 2003 and 2010, nine Bimbo Bakeries workers had parts of digits or a limb amputated after accidents at plants across the state, and regulators found cases of inadequate training and machine guarding.^[14]

See also

• List of bakeries
• List of brand name breads

References

External links

• Official website