Bimbo Bakeries USA

Bimbo Bakeries USA, Inc. is the American part of the big Mexican bakery company called Grupo Bimbo. It is the largest bakery company in the United States. The company is based in Irving, Texas, which is near Dallas.

Bimbo Bakeries USA owns many popular brands that make fresh bread and sweet baked goods. Some of these brands are Arnold, Levy's, Ball Park, Colombo, Francisco, Oroweat, Entenmann's, Sara Lee, and Thomas'.

The company also helps sponsor many important soccer teams all over the world.

Name

The name "Bimbo" started in 1945 when the company changed from being called Super Pan S.A. The name mixes parts of "bingo" and "Bambi". This sweet, simple name helped show the friendly image the company wanted to create.

History

Bimbo Bakeries USA started in 1994 when a big Mexican baking company, Grupo Bimbo, bought a company in California that made tortillas. Soon after, in 1997, they bought another bakery company in San Diego and began selling bread in the United States.

The company kept growing. In 1998, they bought a large bakery in Texas. By 2002, they had added many popular brands like Oroweat and Entenmann's. In 2011, they bought a very big bakery business, which made them twice as large. By 2020, they had added Lender's Bagels to their family of brands.

Today, Bimbo Bakeries USA has many bakeries and sells its products all across the United States.

Nationwide expansion

On December 10, 2008, it was announced that Grupo Bimbo planned to buy Weston Foods Inc., a part of George Weston Ltd., for $2.38 billion. This purchase made Bimbo Bakeries USA the biggest bakery company in the United States. The deal finished on January 21, 2009. With this purchase, Bimbo got brands like Arnold, Brownberry, Freihofer's, and Stroehmann. It also added 22 factories and 4,000 delivery trucks. After this, Bimbo Bakeries USA had 35 factories and more than 7,000 sales routes across all of the lower 48 states. In April 2026, the company said it would move its headquarters back to the Dallas area as part of its plans for future growth.

Soccer sponsorship

On January 11, 2011, Bimbo Bakeries USA announced a partnership to become the official jersey sponsor of the Philadelphia Union, a team in the Major League Soccer. This marked the fifth professional soccer team supported by Bimbo. Their parent company, Grupo Bimbo, had previously sponsored teams like the Rochester Rhinos, Club América, C.D. Guadalajara, C.F. Monterrey, and C.D. Saprissa in Costa Rica. As part of this deal, Bimbo also became the official sponsor for bread and baked goods for both the Union and Major League Soccer, with the agreement worth about US$12 million over four years.

Sara Lee acquisition

On November 9, 2010, Grupo Bimbo announced it would buy the North American fresh bakery business from the Sara Lee Corporation. This deal cost $959 million and combined the largest and third-largest bakery companies in the United States. After the purchase, Bimbo Bakeries USA had 75 bakeries in 31 states and served all of the continental United States.

The acquisition added about $2.1 billion in sales to Bimbo Bakeries USA, bringing its total sales to roughly $6 billion. This made it more than twice as large as the next biggest bakery company in the United States, Flowers Foods.

Sara Lee Corp. had bought its fresh-baked division in 2001 by purchasing Earthgrains for $2.8 billion.

In November 2011, Sara Lee finished selling its North American fresh bakery business to Grupo Bimbo for $709 million. Sara Lee also sold its fresh-bakery businesses in Spain and Portugal to Grupo Bimbo for 115 million euros ($158.3 million).

Bimbo Bakeries USA had to sell some of its assets because of rules from the antitrust division of the United States Department of Justice. Some of these sales included:

• Earthgrains and Healthy Choice in Omaha sold to Pan-O-Gold in May 2012.
• Holsum and Milano in Harrisburg and Scranton sold to Schmidt Baking Company in May 2012.
• Sara Lee and Earthgrains in California and Earthgrains in Oklahoma City sold to Flowers Foods in October 2012.

Main brands

Bimbo Bakeries USA has many different brands that make many kinds of baked goods. Some of these brands include:

• Alfaro's Artesano – makes sliced bread and buns, similar to the Sara Lee Artesano line
• Arnold – makes loaf bread sold all over the United States
• Ball Park – makes buns and rolls
• Barcel – makes Takis, Takis Kettlez, and other snack varieties
• Bays – makes English muffins
• Beefsteak – makes bread
• Bimbo – makes cakes and bread, found in big U.S. cities with many Hispanic and Hispanic-American people
• Boboli – makes ready-made pizza crusts
• Brownberry – makes loaf bread sold all over the United States
• The Cheesecake Factory at Home – makes "brown bread" from The Cheesecake Factory for home use
• Colombo – makes sweet and sourdough bread products. It used to be the Colombo Baking Company.
• EarthGrains – makes loaf bread sold all over the United States
• Emmy's Organics – makes small coconut cookies in New York
• Entenmann's – a pastry bakery in the United States
• Francisco – makes bread and rolls
• Freihofer's – makes bread and cakes, mostly found in upstate New York
• Goldminer Bakery – makes sourdough and special bread sold across the United States
• Grace Baking – makes artisan bread, buns, and rolls; started in the San Francisco Bay Area
• Grandma Sycamore's – makes homemade breads, based in Utah and found in the intermountain west
• Heiner's – makes sliced bread in West Virginia from Heiner's Bakery
• J.J. Nissen – makes bread commonly found in New England
• Lender's Bagels – makes bagels
• Little Bites – makes small snacks under the Entenmann's name
• Maier's – makes bread
• Marinela – makes Mexican cookies and pastry
• Mrs. Baird's – a leading bakery mainly in Texas and nearby states
• Nature's Harvest Bread – makes sliced bread in the United States
• Old Country – makes restaurant bread
• Old Home – a bread brand mostly seen in the Midwest, formerly from the Metz Baking Company
• Oroweat – makes loaf bread sold all over the United States
• The Rustik Oven – makes artisan sliced bread and flatbread in the United States
• San Luis Sourdough – makes sourdough sold in the western United States
• Sara Lee – only the North America Fresh Bakery unit
• Stroehmann – makes loaf bread in the United States
• Tenderflake – makes pie shells and pastries
• Thomas' – makes English muffins and bagels
• Tía Rosa – makes home-style bread, pastry, and tortillas
• Wholesome Harvest – makes sliced bread in the United States