Grupo Bimbo

Grupo Bimbo S.A.B. de C.V.
Sociedad Anónima Bursátil de Capital Variable
Traded as BMV: BIMBO A
Industry Food processing
Founded 1945
Headquarters Mexico City, Mexico
Area served
 Worldwide
Key people
 Daniel Servitje (Chairman of the Board and CEO)
Products Bread products, candies, pastries etc.
Revenue Increase US$ 13.785 billion (2012)[1]
Decrease US$ 155.6 million (2012)[1]
Number of employees
 130,000
Divisions Bimbo Bakeries USA[2]
Website www.grupobimbo.com

Grupo Bimbo, S.A.B. de C.V. (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈbimbo]) is the largest Mexican-owned baking company, with operations in the Americas, Asia and Europe. In 2013 generated US$13.785 billion in sales. Since 1980, Grupo Bimbo shares have traded on the Mexican Stock Exchange.

It produces over 10,000 products under more than 100 household brands including: Arnold, Barcel, Ben’s, Bimbo, Brownberry, Dempster’s, Dulces Vero, Eagle, Entenmann’s, Fargo, El Globo, Marinela, McGavin’s, Mrs Baird’s, New York Bakery Co., Nutrella, Oroweat, Plus Vita, POM, Pullman, Ricolino, Sara Lee, Silueta, Tia Rosa, Thomas’, Villaggio, among others.

It has over 128,000 associates and operates 169 plants (39 in Mexico and 130 abroad), three trading agencies and eight joint ventures. The products of Grupo Bimbo are sold in more than 2.3 million points of sales across 21 countries, including: Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal, El Salvador, Spain, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay and Venezuela. Its headquarters are located in Mexico City.

It has an extensive distribution network in Mexico and one of the largest of the American continent, with over 52,000 routes and like other companies, operates under a system of recurring visits to point of sales, sometimes they visit the same establishment up to 3 times per day.

Among its joint ventures there are Alicorp (Perú), Blue Label (México), Fincomún, Galletas la Moderna, Grupo Nutresa (Colombia), Mundo Dulce (Arcor), PanGlo and Rich.

History

The company Grupo Bimbo was started in Mexico in 1945 by Lorenzo Servitje, Roberto Servitje, José T. Mata, Jaime Sendra, Jaime Jorba and Alfonso Velasco. Over fifteen years, under the leadership of Daniel Servitje, current Chairman of the Board and CEO of the Group, has multiplied the business four times, increasing sales and production volume by reporting US$4,67 billion sales in 2004 to US$10,712 million sales in 2011.

The name Bimbo was first coined in 1945, a mixing of the words bingo and Bambi. There may be some resistance to the name in English-speaking areas, as evidenced by a Say "Beembo!" advertising campaign in the United States. In connection with this campaign, a company representative was quoted as saying that the name is derived from the Italian word bambino, meaning little boy.

The corporate image, a small white teddy bear, resulted from the drawing that came to Mr. Jaime Jorba in a Christmas card, and whom Anita Mata, wife of Jaime Sendra, dressed with a white apron and a chef’s hat, as was given a loaf of bread under his arm.

The Bimbo trademark was recognized as “famous” by the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property on April 27, 2010, becoming one of the 27 brands that have been so honored in Mexico. In 2014, the Brand Footprint by Kantar World Panel positioned it in seventh place in the food industry in the world.

The first products launched into the market were cellophane-wrapped large and small white loaves of bread, rye bread and toasted bread. By late 1948, there were nine Bimbo products on the market. The line was expanded in 1952 with the production of the Donas del Osito (Bear Cub Doughnuts) started, along with a new line of buns: Bimbollos, Medias Noches and Colchones.

Expansion

In 1949 the first depot outside Mexico City was inaugurated in the city of Puebla. In 1956, the the Bimbo Occidente plant in Guadalajara started operations, with Roberto Servitje as its first General Manager. Four years later the Bimbo del Norte plant was inaugurated in the city of Monterrey, Nuevo León.

After an administrative restructure and the launch of successful products such as Gansito and Submarinos Marinela, in 1972 the company installed the largest bakery in Latin America and one of the ten largest in the world, in Azcapotzalco, Mexico City.

With an important growth in the products and brands portfolio, such as Barcel, Marinela, Tía Rosa, Ricolino and Suandy, Don Roberto Servitje was appointed as CEO of Grupo Bimbo in 1979. A year later, the company started trading 15% of its shares on the Mexican Stock Exchange (BMV).

In 1984, the company started its expansion by exporting to the United States. Two years later, the company created a new organizational structure, still used by Bimbo today.

Later, in 1989, Bimbo Central America was created with the opening of a plant in Guatemala. Two years later with the addition of Bimbo Argentina, the Latin America Region Corporate structure was created and in 1995, the company opened two more plants in Chile and in Argentina.

With the appointment of Daniel Servitje as CEO of the company in 1997, the global growth strategy was strengthened. In 1998 the Group acquired the American bakery Mrs. Baird’s, as well as Plus Vita and Pullman in Brazil, in 2001. A year later it acquired the West region baking business of George Weston Limited in the United States.

Grupo Bimbo acquired the Panrico bakery in Beijing in 2007, initiating its presence in the Asian market, expanding its operations in two continents.

On 2008, Grupo Bimbo bought Nutrella bakery in Brazil and in 2009 bought all of the George Weston Foods Ltd. in the United States, with the brands Arnold, Boboli, Brownberry, Entenmann’s, Freihofer's, Stroehmann and Thomas’, plus 22 factories and 4,000 delivery trucks.

During 2011, the Group consolidated two important acquisitions, becoming the largest baking company in the world. In September, Grupo Bimbo bought Fargo in Argentina, while in October, it closed on the acquisition of Sara Lee's operations in Spain and Portugal for EUR$115 million, renaming the unit Bimbo Iberia. Thus the company managed to unify the Bimbo brand that operated independently in both countries.

Shortly after, in February 2014, Grupo Bimbo announced the acquisition of Canada Bread. The transaction, valued at C$1.83 billion, enabled the Group to reaffirm its position as the world’s leading baking company by extending its distribution in North America and entering the market of United Kingdom, this last one through the New York Bakery Co. brand, a leading manufacturer of bagels in Europe. In the same year, the company acquired Supan, a baking company in Ecuador, an operation that led the company to reinforce its presence in America and the world.

Relevant acquisitions

Sustainability

Grupo Bimbo is a company that incorporates corporate social responsibility into its production and distribution operations in the countries where it is present, which allows the company to align its economic, social and environmental goals in an efficient and responsible way.

The company started its social responsibilities activities by earmarking a percentage of profits to open and maintain a school. Throughout the years the company has strengthened them, until it created a vigorous program in this matter, known as “Sembrando Juntos” (Sowing Together), based on the pillars of Wellbeing, Planet, Community and Associates; each one focused in the construction of a positive and long relationship between the society and the planet. It has multiple social work projects in the environmental, educational and nutritional preservation, as well as community welfare.

The Planet pillar is the environmental arm of this program, through which Grupo Bimbo aims to become a worldwide model to be followed in terms of Environmental Sustainability, with the primary objective of reducing the environmental footprint of the operations of the company and of its value chain. The Group is seeking to achieve this goal through 4 lines of action addressed to particular challenges of the industry in matters of efficient use of energy and water, waste and sustainable procurement. These lines are: carbon footprint, water footprint, waste management and natural capital, respectively.

Worldwide, the Group has implemented a series of best practices such as integrated waste management; collection devices and reuse of rainwater, as well as centers for the treatment of wastewater in plants and sales centers; it also has managed a significant reduction of emissions into the atmosphere through a strategy based on energy efficiency through vehicle technology and the incorporation of renewable energies.

Grupo Bimbo was the first company in the food industry to launch a wind farm in October 2012. Located in the state of Oaxaca, the farm Piedra Larga supplies electric energy to almost all the company’s facilities in Mexico. The company also inaugurated the first Ecologic Sales Center in July 2013, located in Mexico City, with an investment close to US$2 million. This center has over 70 electric vehicles, entirely designed by the Group’s technicians.

The company seeks to contribute innovative and purposeful way with all those actions that are undertaken in order to reduce the environmental footprint, therefore it works with different organizations and projects to achieve it. An example of this, is the collaboration with Reforestamos México, a civil association that works to ensure the forests that Mexico needs for its future development. Emerged as an initiative from Grupo Bimbo, and established in 2002, the success of its operations throughout more than a decade, has allowed it to consolidate as one of the most important organizations regarding forest nurturing.

Its working model involves training ejidos and communities to generate and develop the required abilities to get a major benefit from their goods and services derived from their forests. It also seeks to make the private sector more aware about their responsibility regarding forests.

Reforestamos México works with companies to invest in the reforestation of high conservation areas. During 2013, in partnership with 46 companies, among them Grupo Bimbo, it summoned more than 91 thousand volunteers who supported in the reforestations of 90 hectares of forests in priority areas such as Nevado de Toluca, State of Mexico, and Bosque de la Primavera in Guadalajara.

Net sales

Awards and recognitions

Brands

Reputation

Social responsibility

Others

Certifications 2013

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "GRUPO BIMBO SAB- SERIES A". Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved 30 October 2011.
  2. ↑ "Bimbo Bakeries to build $75m factory in US". BakeryAndSnacks.com. Retrieved 20 April 2015.
  3. ↑ http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/business/saputo-to-sell-canadas-largest-producer-of-snack-cakes-to-canada-bread-286221491.html

External links