Bimbo to shut Canadian bakery putting 95 jobs at stake
CANADA – Grupo Bimbo, the Mexico-based bakery giant has announced plans to close a facility in Canada putting several jobs at stake.
According to Bimbo, the bakery in Lévis, Quebec, will close its doors in the week starting 1 July, and about 95 employees are impacted by the decision.
Explaining the closure announcement, Bimbo said that the carefully thought-after decision supports its strategic efforts to drive productivity improvements in its operations.
“This decision supports our strategic efforts to drive productivity improvements in our operations through better efficiency, increasing capacity utilisation and reducing overall costs, while allowing us to provide the same high-quality products and services to our valued customers.”
Bimbo Canada is the country’s largest bakery with brands including Dempster’s, Stonemill, Villaggio and Natural Bakery.
Marie-Ève Royer, president of Bimbo Canada revealed that while the bakery has made every effort to sustain and build the business, over time, site utilisation and production have steadily declined.
“It was a tough decision to close this bakery and I will personally ensure that we do everything possible to ease the impact on our people and encourage them to seek employment at other Bimbo Canada facilities that are hiring,” she said.
Bimbo said affected employees will be encouraged to apply for open positions in other bakeries in the region, such as Québec City and Sainte-Marie-de-Beauce (Vachon).
The closure comes at a time when the bakery giant expects to cut its capital expenditure in 2024 and 2025 after reporting falling quarterly sales and profits.
Last month Bimbo announced that its first-quarter net earnings dropped more than 40% to 2.3bn pesos (US$158M) in the three months ending on March 31, 2024.
During this time, operating income fell 16.6% to 6.8bn pesos, while adjusted EBITDA dropped 7.8% to 11.8bn pesos. Net sales were down 6% at 93.2bn pesos.
Speaking to analysts, Diego Gaxiola, Bimbo’s CFO revealed that the Mexican bakery major saw cuts to its sales guidance for the year 2024, moving from “low- to mid-single digit” to “single-digit top-line growth.
He said the group was “expecting a slight decrease for this year” and “for 2025” noting that Bimbo would “probably see a normalisation in 2026 going forward.
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