‘Strategic business decision’: Natural Bakery to close store doors to public, remain on grocery shelves

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This article was published 27/08/2024 (437 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

LONGTIME customers filtering through Natural Bakery must now pass by a yellow notice that reads: permanent store closure as of Sept. 28.

At that point, the Winnipeg bakery’s sliced bread will still be available at grocery chains, but not at its 808 Logan Ave. shop.

“It’s gonna be an era gone,” said Nelson Andrade, who was visiting the site Tuesday afternoon, leaving with a white box of sweets.

He comes less often now, Andrade said; he’s moved out of the neighbourhood, but as a teenager, Natural Bakery was a regular haunt of his.

Bimbo Canada — the Canadian arm of Grupo Bimbo, a Mexican multinational food manufacturer — bought Natural Bakery last year.

It’s converting the Logan Avenue site to a pickup only location for retail and wholesale customers.

The move is part of a “strategic business decision,” spokeswoman Sylvia Sicuso wrote in an email.

Natural Bakery has always served as a pickup point, Sicuso added. “While we understand this decision is disappointing for consumers who shop at the store, they will still be able to purchase our products at grocery retailers.”

Costco, Family Foods, Food Fare and Superstore are among the retailers listed on the bakery’s notices.

Sylvain Charlebois, a food distribution and policy professor at Dalhousie University in Halifax, was not surprised at the Winnipeg site conversion.

Grupo Bimbo is a manufacturer — dealing with customers is “not their forte,” Charlebois said.

Second, there seems to be asset consolidation happening within the company, he said. Bimbo Canada announced plans to close a bakery in Lévis, Que., three months ago.

“I think they’ve been trying to adopt a leaner approach to manufacturing and wholesaling,” Charlebois said.

Grupo Bimbo entered Canada with a splash 10 years ago, by purchasing Canada Bread (parent company of Dempster’s) in a deal valued at $1.83 billion. Canada Bread then changed its name to Bimbo Canada.

Bimbo Canada bought Vachon Bakery in 2015, and Stonemill Bakehouse in 2016. It operates 16 bakeries and 183 sales centres across the country, according to its website.

After Grupo Bimbo acquired Canada Bread, it got entangled in a bread price-fixing lawsuit. In June 2023, it was hit with a record-breaking $50-million fine.

Canada Bread later denied participating in the “wide-ranging conspiracy” to fix bread prices and pointed a finger at Maple Leaf Foods, which owned the company when it’s said to have conspired with industry competitors.

Named in a class-action lawsuit over the issue, Canada Bread Co. Ltd. filed a statement of defence in October 2023.

Meanwhile, Bimbo Canada has been “quite aggressive” in the national bakery market, Charlebois said.

Grupo Bimbo and George Weston Ltd. are now the country’s two biggest bread makers, by Statista’s measure.

In Winnipeg, the Logan Avenue change doesn’t sit well with Edward Morgielewicz, who has purchased loaves from Natural Bakery for more than 40 years.

“This stuff comes right fresh,” he said Tuesday, setting baked goods into his car. “I like the way they do the dough.”

Morgielewicz said he chooses bakery bread over grocery store bread; the freshness is different, he insisted. Many seniors have made a habit of visiting Natural Bakery, he added.

Susan Morrice treks to Logan Avenue for fresh bread. Her husband has food sensitivities; Natural Bakery is among the only loaves he can eat.

“We are very upset,” she wrote in a message to the Free Press, adding it seems shop workers will lose their jobs.

Questions about the status of site employees were not answered Tuesday.

Grupo Bimbo’s North American net sales decreased year-over-year this spring.

The company blamed industry-wide weaker consumption, “strategic exits” of some non-branded businesses and a booming second quarter in 2023, where sales had increased 11.8 per cent.

— with files from The Canadian Press

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com