2023-08-22 04:00:00
Could St-Méthode Bakery be in trouble? Or outright for sale? If the management denies the rumor, it confirms all the same to be looking for new partnerships in order to consolidate its activities.
Last week, in response to questions from Journalthe company from Adstock, in Chaudière-Appalaches, issued a press release in which it confirmed that it was currently studying “the possibility of joining forces with various business partners”.
The reason: “New partners will allow […] to begin our development projects on the Ontario and United States markets,” said its president, Benoit Faucher, in a press release. These are markets within our reach […] which consumers are already interested in’.
Excess capacities
During a telephone interview subsequently granted, Mr. Faucher flatly refused to specify his plans. Everything will depend, he says, on the partner found.
Nor is there any question of financial difficulties or of the sale, even partial, of the company, he replied, qualifying in passing as “ridiculous” the questions of the Journal.
The company, founded in 1947, would simply be struggling with “excess production capacity”, he suggested, while specifying that it was interested in the injection of capital much more than in loans.
Closure and bankruptcy
Already heavily concentrated domestically – since the purchase of Canada Bread by Mexico’s Grupo Bimbo in 2014 – the bread industry is currently facing countless headwinds.
Among them: recurring supply difficulties, sharp increases in grain, transportation and labor prices, and arduous discussions with distributors over retail pricing.
In March 2023, after increasing the size of its Adstock facilities by 35% (20,000 sq. ft.) [au coût de 14M$], Boulangerie St-Méthode has announced the closure of its plant in Magog, Estrie. Twenty employees lost their jobs.
Last June, moreover, an independent distribution company associated with Boulangerie Saint-Méthode, in Bas-du-Fleuve, declared bankruptcy. According to the report by Raymond Chabot Grant Thorton, trustee in the file, the company had a debt of some $47,000 from the Quebec tax authorities.
State aid
One thing is certain, over the past 15 years, Boulangerie St-Méthode will have benefited from at least $4M in assistance from Investissement Québec and the Government of Québec.
Last February, a month before closing its Magog plant, the company received a $100,000 grant from the Economic Diversification Fund for the territory of the MRC des Appalaches.
In 2018, the company and Groupe BSM, which owns St-Méthode, received $3M under the Essor program from the Quebec government.
Finally, Boulangerie St-Méthode received $961,000 in aid from Quebec in 2008, through Investissement Quebec and the then Ministry of Economic Development, Innovation and Export Trade.
The company now employs 300 people and in 2022 generated revenues of $100M.
-With the contribution of Sylvain Larocque and Nicolas Brasseur
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