Milling & Baking News - August 4, 2015 - 11

Grupo Bimbo acquires artisan
baking business in Canada
MEXICO CITY - Grupo Bimbo S.A.B.
de C.V. has acquired Italian Home
Bakery Ltd., a family-owned Canadian bakery of fresh artisan bread and
rolls as well as frozen baked products.
The acquisition, which was completed last week, was announced July
22 by Daniel Servitje, chairman and
chief executive officer. Mr. Servitje
mentioned the acquisition at the conclusion of prepared remarks delivered
during a conference call with investment analysts in connection with the
company's second-quarter financial
results. Mr. Servitje said I.H.B. has annual sales of about C$11 million ($8.4
million) in the Toronto area.
"The company has one production
plant, and, while small, it reinforces
our presence and production capacity in this part of Canada and the U.S.,
complementing our frozen business,"
Mr. Servitje said during the call.
I.H.B. operates a 70,000-squarefoot, HACCP approved, ISO 22000
and kosher certified baking plant in

Etobicoke, northwest of Toronto.
Among roughly 60 products baked by
I.H.B. are spacatto, or "split," Italian
bread and rolls. Additionally, it offers
an array of bread varieties, including
a Calabrese line; ciabatta and Hearth &
Health Selections. The latter products
are made in conjunction with the Heart
and Stroke Foundation of Canada.
In addition to fresh baked food
selections, I.H.B. has expanded its frozen
baked foods business in recent years
and ships product to retailers and
food service chains
throughout Canada.
A 2014 profile of the company in
Baking & Snack said I.H.B. operates 26
direct-store delivery routes in Ontario
and employs 150.
Since 1999, the business, which was
established in 1955, has been owned
by brothers Dennis and John Rossetti,
sons of immigrant Italian parents. In

Open house showcases Ardent's
Innovative Bakery Resources
TUALATIN, ORE. - Ardent Mills
showcased its unique and newlynamed Innovative Bakery Resources
(I.B.R.) plant in Tualatin on July 29 with
a press briefing, tour and open house.
Formerly known as Integrated Bakery Resources, I.B.R. is unique in that
the 90,000-square-foot facility is both an active baking
plant, the only one owned
by Ardent Mills, and a development and testing facility
for both Ardent ingredients
and customer applications.
The plant complements Ardent's equally unique Mobile
Innovation Center and its
50,000-square-foot specialty
mix plant in Arlington, Ore.
"Our facility and our specialty mix facility are a real
'one-two punch' allowing
major food customers to use
our high quality ingredients,
customizable lines and custom blends to support regional pilots
and national product launches," said
Scott Dillingham, manager of I.B.R.
I.B.R. serves as a "launching pad"
where customers may "scale up"
bakingbusiness.com / world-grain.com

production of a new product ahead of
market release, said Bill Stoufer, chief
operating officer at Ardent Mills.
"With I.B.R. we are able to use our
great ingredients to produce innovative high-inclusion bread with fillings, swirls, marbling, toppings and

enrobings while providing hand-touch
care to every loaf at commercial scale,"
Mr. Stoufer said. "I.B.R. is part think
tank and artisan bakery, allowing us
to partner with food manufacturers as

Business

2001, they moved the business from
Toronto to its current facility and began investing in new equipment to
create the current high-volume, artisan bakery.
For Bimbo, the acquisition is the
company's third (and smallest) in
Canada in the past 14 months.
In May 2014, Bimbo completed its
acquisition of Canada Bread Co. Ltd.

in a transaction valued at $1,663 million. In early 2015, Bimbo acquired
Saputo Bakery Inc., a subsidiary of
Saputo Inc., in a transaction valued at
slightly over $100 million. Bimbo in
2009 acquired the U.S. baking business
of Weston Foods, the latter another
company based in Canada. MBN
well as retail and food service enterprises, to bring complex baked goods
to the consumer market."
At the Tualatin plant, I.B.R. currently
bakes several types of bread sold in the
western United States with production
of about 250 loaves an hour. The facility was opened in 2012 with abundant
space to accommodate growth. At the
same time, smaller batches of "test"
products may be run through the
same plant to meet the needs
of customers who do not
choose or who don't have the
ability to do such "real-time"
tests themselves.
The I.B.R. plant allows
Ardent and its customers
to take advantage of the latest trends in the industry as
they develop new products,
Mr. Stoufer said. It is both
Global Food Safety Initiative
and organic certified and
may support fresh and frozen applications.
The original Tualatin
plant began as an artisan
bakery several decades ago
before becoming part of Cargill, and
then part of Ardent Mills that was
formed in May 2014 through a joint
venture of ConAgra Foods, Inc., CHS
Inc. and Cargill. MBN
Milling & Baking News XAugust 4, 2015 / 11

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Milling & Baking News - August 4, 2015

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