Bimbo letting the sun shine in for power

Escondido sunlight coupled with Bimbo Bakeries USA state-of-the-industry business acquisition techniques has sparked a massive solar array project at 2069 Aldergrove Avenue.

Mexican mega-bakery corporation Grupo Bimbo is adding a rather impressive array of solar panels citing Escondido’s 263 sunny days per year and significant company cost savings.

Solar panels will reduce carbon dioxide emissions at Escondido by 981 tons per year – which is equivalent to providing one year of electricity for 156 homes, company officials said this week.

Approximately 3,150 rooftop solar panels will produce 1,775,000 kWh of electricity annually, powering 30 percent of the bakery’s electricity, Bimbo officials said.

The facility’s 107,500-square-foot solar array will have a 1.075 MW system and provide increased operational efficiency to the Escondido plant, as well as “significant environmental benefits”, the company said

“We are excited to further our commitment to sustainability by introducing solar technology to our facilities,” James McKeown, director of sustainability for Bimbo in the US, said. “We are always looking for new opportunities to reduce our carbon footprint and lead by example with our sustainable projects.”

Maybe Donald Trump doesn’t want Mexicans, and foreign investments but Mexican-based Grupo Bimbo has proven to be a major player in the U.S. commercial bakery world.

Bimbo USA, 2069 Aldergrove Ave.

Beginning with its acquisition of Escondido’s Pacific Pride Bakery, San Diego’s largest independent baker, in 1996, the company has expanded aggressively across the American landscape.

In 1998, Grupo Bimbo acquired Mrs. Baird’s Bakeries of Texas, the nation’s largest family-owned bakery. The U.S. subsidiary was renamed Bimbo Bakeries USA with headquarters at Fort Worth.

A decade later, the company spent $2.38 billion to buy Weston Foods Inc. It bought iconic Sara Lee Corp. and assets for nearly $900 million in 2010, doubling the size f the company.

Now based at Horsham, Pennsylvania, BBU, as the company refers to itself, operates more than 60 bakeries, employs more than 22,000 workers and distributes products through 11,000 sales routes in all 50 states.

Bimbo is the largest bakery company in the nation. It owns six of the top 12 U.S. bread brands. Revenue was nearly $4 billion last year.

And the name? wikipedia said “The name Bimbo was first coined in 1945 when the company switched from Super Pan S.A. A mixing of the words bingo and Bambi.^[4] Bimbo’s innocent, childlike associations fit the image the company wished to build. The English word bimbo, with its negative connotations, has no cognates in Spanish.

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