Stock Profile: Canada Bread Symbol: CBY (TSE)

Key Links

• Canada Bread • Chart • TSE Profile • Advice for Investors • Globeinvestor • SEDAR • Wright's

Forums

• Our Forum • Stockhouse

News

• Press Releases • Canada Newswire • CCN Newswire

Stats as of 5/18/01

• H/L Ratio: 1.55 • RS: 79.7 • Shares: 21,415,112 • P/E: 15.29 • Price: $13.00

Other Profiles

• Profile Index • Penn West Petroleum • Zenon Environmental

Canada Bread is a leading Canadian manufacturer of fresh bread and pastry products as well as pasta and pasta sauces. It sells bread under the Dempster's™ trade mark and pasta products under the Olivieri's™ label. Pastry products sell as Tenderflake™ brand.

The company was founded in 1911 when George Weston agreed to merge his bread business with four other companies. Weston's Model Bakery had grown to dominate Toronto's bakery business at that time and the merger agreement included a ten-year moratorium on the Weston company making bread at all. It continued in the biscuits and cake business and re-entered the bread business in competition with Canada Bread in 1921.

Canada Bread withstood the competition and has thrived for over ninety years. It sells bread in every province except Quebec and has a 25% interest in Multi-Marques Inc., Quebec's largest fresh bread bakery. Today, Canada Bread is 68% owned by Canada's largest food processing company, Maple Leaf Foods.

At the end of 1996, the Toronto Globe & Mail invited eight mutual fund managers and investment advisors to pick just one stock as their top pick for 1997. The Successful Investor's Pat McKeough picked Canada Bread and won the contest when the company closed the year with a gain of 84% reaching a share price of $29.50.

Amid restructuring, competition and other woes, the stock drifted back down to a low of $10 in July 2000 but has risen steadily since then. It hit a 52 week high on May 15, 2001. Its quarterly report to March 31st showed a 45.5% increase in earnings per share. In fact, annual earnings per share have increased steadily for the last three years. The company is also continuing with a normal course issuer bid, intending to buy back up to 5% of its shares by March 24, 2002. The stock looks well positioned to go higher.

Quarterly Earnings per Share

Annual Earnings per Share