Divestiture and Growth
In 1995, Loblaw divested the last of its retail holding in the United States while Galen Weston oversaw the expansion of Canadian retail operations. Loblaw bought 80-store Agora Foods of Atlantic Canada for $81 million in late 1998 and soon thereafter announced the purchase of Quebec-based Provigo for $1.7 billion. Meanwhile, George Weston Limited continued to move away from resource-based industries. A decade earlier, White Swan tissue had been sold for $110 million and in 1998 the rest of E.B. Eddy Forest Products was divested. East and West coast fish processing operations, namely British Columbia Packers and Connors Brothers of New Brunswick, were also sold.
Weston greatly expanded the company’s American bakery operations with the purchase of Bestfoods Baking Co. from Unilever for (U.S.) $2.7 billion in 2003. With nineteen plants, Weston’s acquired brands that included Entenmann’s, Thomas’ English Muffins, and Arnold Bread.
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“All growth is a leap in the dark, a spontaneous unpremeditated act without benefit of experience.”
—Henry Miller (1891–1980)