Tuesday, December 19, 2017

Bread prices were fixed

Galen Weston, head of both Loblaws and Weston’s Bread companies, said it was Loblaws that told the federal Bureau of Competition that there was price-fixing on wholesale and retail bread prices from 2001 to March, 2015.

Because Loblaws blew the whistle, neither it nor its employees will be prosecuted.

That may not turn out to be true for others involved in the collusion which apparently included supermarket chains and another bread wholesaler.

The biggest competitor in the bread business is Canada Bread which Maple Leaf Foods Inc. sold to Bimbo Bakery of Mexico in 2014.

Neither the companies being investigated, nor the Bureau of Competition Policy, have come forward with other company identities.


But Metro Inc., which also owns Food Basics, did issue a statement some time ago saying it is cooperating with the investigators.