written like an advertisement . please help improve it by removing promotional content and inappropriate external links and by adding encyclopedic content written from a neutral point of view . june 2012 learn how and when to remove this template message loblaw companies limited type public traded as tsx l industry retailing founded toronto ontario canada 1919 founders theodore loblaw j. milton cork headquarters brampton ontario canada key people galen weston jr. executive chairman products apparel footwear store cash & carry warehouse club discount store hypermarket supercentre superstore supermarket revenue 45.394 billion cad 2015 1 net income 623 million cad 2015 1 owner george weston limited 62.9 % ; as of 2012 2 number of employees 135 000 2012 1 website www.loblaw.ca loblaw companies limited is the largest food retailer in canada that encompasses 1 000 corporate and franchise supermarkets that operates under 22 regional and market segment banners . loblaw s operates a private label program that includes grocery and household items clothing baby products pharmaceuticals cellular phones general merchandise and financial services . loblaw brands include president s choice no name joe fresh t & t everyday living exact seaquest azami and teddy s choice . 3 most of loblaw s 136 000 full time and part time employees are members of the united food and commercial workers with the exception of workers at the real canadian wholesale club in alberta who are members of the christian labour association of canada . loblaw s regional divisions include westfair foods ltd. in western canada and northern ontario national grocers co. ltd. in ontario provigo inc. in quebec and atlantic wholesalers ltd. in atlantic canada . contents 1 history 1.1 we sell for less 1.2 depression and war 1.3 post war expansion 1.4 garfield weston 1.5 loblaw companies limited 1.6 stagnation 1.7 reinventing loblaws 1.8 no name and no frills 1.9 president s choice 1.10 superstore 1.11 expansion 1.12 management shakeup 1.13 joe fresh 1.14 environment 1.15 ethnic and indulgence 1.16 maple leaf gardens 1.17 shoppers drug mart 2 banners 2.1 superstore 2.2 great food 2.3 primarily franchised 2.4 hard discount 2.5 wholesale cash and carry 2.6 liquor 2.7 defunct banners 2.8 in store brands 3 corporate governance 4 see also 5 references 6 external links history edit we sell for less edit loblaw groceterias limited store no. 1 2923 dundas st. w. toronto ontario postcard ca. 1919 . in 1919 toronto grocers theodore pringle loblaw and j. milton cork opened the first loblaw groceterias store modelled on a new and radically different retail concept namely self serve . the traditional grocery store provided a high level of personal service but was a labour intensive operation . customers typically had to wait while a clerk fetched items from behind a counter . other goods such as sugar and flour had to be individually weighed and the order then tallied by hand and added to the customer s account . home delivery by wagon was usually included free of charge . loblaw and cork friends from the days when both worked as young clerks in the cork family grocery store believed they could cut costs by introducing self service combined with cash and carry . while cash stores were not new the idea of allowing customers to select their own merchandise was . the pair had heard of the piggly wiggly self serving store in the united states and travelled to memphis tennessee to see it in operation first hand . 4 with customers allowed to browse freely pick up their own goods and then pay cash at a central checkout counter with no credit or home delivery operating costs were reduced . the two came away convinced that a similar style of operation could work in canada . but loblaw had his sceptics in the early days when i started the cash and carry business i was told that it could not be done but my contention was that the people of toronto and ontario would welcome the opportunity to carry their groceries home providing i could offer them higher qualities at a much lower price than they were used to paying . 5 the first loblaw groceterias co. store opened at 2923 dundas st. w. toronto in june 1919 . months later a second location at 528 college street followed . the groceterias name was apparently derived from cafeteria a popular self serve restaurant format . 6 along with the loblaw name the outlets featured big we sell for less signs across their storefronts . inside the stores were clean and well lit with items neatly displayed and prices clearly marked . while produce and fresh meats were largely excluded from the early stores sales proved strong . a year later another toronto grocer c.b. shields joined with loblaw and cork . 7 loblaw groceterias co. limted store college st. and palmerston blvd. toronto postcard ca. 1923 in addition to being a proponent of self serve loblaw was also a firm believer in the fundamentally sound principle of the chain store system 8 and its ability to deliver better price and superior quality to through its buying power . three years after the opening of the first store there were nine groceterias throughout toronto . 9 the company had also expanded into the united states with loblaw groceterias inc. outlets in buffalo new york . in 1928 with 69 stores throughout ontario the company unveiled its new state of the art head office and warehouse at fleet and bathurst streets along today s lake shore blvd in toronto . at a cost of 1.25 million the loblaw warehouse was likened to a temple of commerce and hailed as a model of efficiency . 10 one newspaper report described it as the most modern warehouse building of its kind in the dominion . 11 the warehouse which served as a distribution centre and manufacturing depot included an interior loading dock that could simultaneously accommodate eight railway freight cars and 23 large trucks . it featured its own electric tram railway four giant ovens for baking a ton of cake and half a ton of cookies a day huge drums for blending tea 22 thousand feet of ammonia filled pipes for refrigeration and a system of pneumatic tubes for sending messages from department to department . a punched card tabulating system forerunner to today s computer would be installed for tracking inventory as the first of its kind in the canadian grocery industry . 12 for loblaw employees the warehouse included amenities such as bowling lanes and a billiards room along with an auditorium for putting on plays . that same year the american company expanded beyond new york state with the opening of outlets in chicago illinois . 10 depression and war edit by october 1929 loblaw groceterias rapid expansion had attracted the attention of competitor dominion stores limited another toronto based food store chain . in a letter to its shareholders dominion management put forward a plan to purchase a controlling interest in loblaw funded by a preferred share offering . 13 weeks later though stock markets around the world collapsed and the proposed acquisition never took place . 4 in spite of the onset of the great depression loblaw continued to expand albeit at a slower pace . by 1930 the chain boasted of 97 spotlessly clean groceterias in ontario . 14 by 1936 that number had grown to 111 but press reports indicated the company had curtailed further expansion in order to increase the scope of its product offerings at the chain s existing outlets . meanwhile the company made a partial retreat from the u.s. market with the sale of its 77 loblaw groceterias inc. stores in chicago illinois to the jewel tea company . the stores had never shown a profit although they had largely been turned around by the time of the sale . the company retained its 50 stores in buffalo new york which were profitable operations . 15 in 1933 company co founder theodore pringle loblaw died suddenly of complications from minor surgery . eulogized as the merchant prince 16 by the press loblaw was remembered not only for his accomplishments in business but also his religious conviction and personal philanthropy that benefited local charities such as the kiwanis boys clubs of toronto and the stevenson memorial hospital of his hometown of alliston ontario . 17 after loblaw s death co founder john milton cork 1870 1957 took charge of the company . during the early 1930s loblaw groceterias began converting many of its outlets to market stores that featured full service meat and produce departments for the first time . previously excluded because of the chain s self serve format and the need to cut meats and weigh produce the new departments proved popular with customers . by 1936 over half of all ontario locations had been converted to the new format that expanded sales without a corresponding increase in store overhead . 18 the company also began updating the appearance of its stores to the new modern streamlined look . in terms of branding while the chain often promoted itself as loblaw s in newspaper ads it wasn t until 1939 that the first loblaws signs went up on store facades replacing the loblaw groceterias co. limited signage . in addition to the new meat and produce departments frozen food sections were also featured a first in canada . loblaw also began introducing other modern amenities such as electronic eye automatic doors and mechanical ventilation systems for the comfort of shoppers . 19 post war expansion edit store construction halted during world war ii resumed in the late 1940s as loblaw undertook a program of expansion and modernization . parking lots a new phenomenon for the chain became an important design component of the company s super markets in the post war era . in particular the loblaw promoted its new rear entrance and exit stores with checkout counters at the back that allowed shoppers increasingly motorized and suburban direct access to their cars . other modernizations included healthfully cool refrigerated air conditioning introduced by loblaw in 1949 the first canadian grocery chain to do so . 20 in spite of such innovations the chain still hearkened back to its retail roots with references to the self serve nature of its fruit vegetable and meat departments . 21 garfield weston edit in 1947 a major shift in corporate ownership took place with the purchase of 100 000 class b shares of loblaw groceterias co. limited by canadian industrialist w. garfield weston . 22 weston president of george weston limited whose interests included baking grocery wholesaling and paper manufacturing acquired the block of voting stock from loblaw co founder j. milton cork . although the share purchase did not represent majority control of loblaw weston was able to have his old friend and colleague george c. metcalf appointed to the board of directors as well as named vice president and general manager . by 1953 though garfield had secured majority control through parent company george weston limited 23 and metcalf was appointed president of loblaw groceterias . 24 with weston in control a program of rapid expansion particularly through acquisition followed as the company extended its holdings beyond ontario into other regions of canada and into the united states . loblaw companies limited edit in 1953 loblaw groceterias acquired majority control of loblaw inc. the former american branch of the company with stores in new york state pennsylvania and ohio through a purchase of stock from george weston limited . 25 that same year loblaw also bought the power supermarkets chain of toronto . more noteworthy though was its decision to take a 25 percent stake in chicago based national tea co. a major supermarket chain with some 750 stores in twelve states three years later . with an ever increasing array of retail assets loblaw companies limited was incorporated in