Bimbo Santa María is a physical embodiment of Grupo Bimbo SAB de CV, Mexico City. The building stands unchanged since it opened in December of 1945, crammed into an unassuming neighborhood in Mexico City. A building full of memory, it houses the original office of Lorenzo Servitje, founder and former chief executive officer, preserved for posterity. While the outside would be largely recognizable to the man affectionately known as Don Lorenzo and his fellow founders, the inside reveals how much Grupo Bimbo has adapted and modernized over the years with four automated production lines, natural light, open meeting rooms, a cafeteria serving healthy lunches and a basketball court. Bimbo Santa María is not a museum. It is a living, breathing bakery that honors its past while looking to the future. 

“The essence of Santa María is it is an old facility that gives us goose bumps when we enter, but it also makes us proud because inside it’s about being productive and producing fresh, high-quality product that will be consumed by families,” said Raul Obregon, chief information and transformation officer, Grupo Bimbo. “It has been modernized, streamlined. We’re close to the community, we’re training our associates, reinvesting in our facilities, and it’s a location that’s convenient to our business — all those business principles that define Grupo Bimbo.”

Not only is Bimbo Santa María the company’s birthplace, but it continues to operate and not simply limp along like one might expect from a bakery of its age. The 77-year-old facility is one of Bimbo Mexico’s best in every measure: productivity and efficiency and sustainability. In many ways, Bimbo Santa María is a leading facility simply because it has been a jumping off point for many initiatives. 

“At Bimbo Santa María, because the facility is so much older, we show other facilities that if we can do this here, we can do this anywhere,” said Mauricio Borges Rivera, maintenance director, Bimbo Santa María. 

Bimbo Santa María is the heart of Grupo Bimbo, and it is also noteworthy because of the leadership it has shown within the company’s growing network of 216 bakeries and other plants. It is a bakery that instills a lot of pride in company employees, both those who work there daily and those outside. 

“It’s the starting point of our journey, a journey that our founders never could have imagined we would be on 77 years later in so many countries, with so many associates, touching so many consumers,” Mr. Obregon said. “But it is the heart and the beginning of achieving productivity through modernization, technology, training associates, valuing the community we work in, but also maintaining our sense of humility, frugality and safety. Outside of the facility is our legacy and history, and it is also a point of pride because it shows what we have achieved with a dream, a vision and the energy to improve the lives of consumers and our associates and make a positive impact on the community and even the country of Mexico.” 

To work in Bimbo Santa María is considered an honor. During Baking & Snack’s visit, many employees expressed the pride they felt working there and that it could be humbling to know they were working in the company’s original facility. Bimbo Santa María has been a natural crucible to forge production floor talent.   

“This plant has taught many leaders that they are able to take the culture at Bimbo Santa María to other places, to larger plants and even different countries,” said Jorge Zarate, global senior vice president, operations and engineering, Grupo Bimbo. “It’s been a developing plant for many people, and those who get to work here take advantage of the opportunity to learn and then pass that learning on.” 

One such employee is Paola Agonizantes, who started her career at Grupo Bimbo 20 years ago at Bimbo Santa María in the quality assurance laboratory. She moved onto supervising the production line before leaving the bakery to work in other sectors of Grupo Bimbo, including Bimbo Mexico headquarters and several bakery facilities throughout Mexico. In 2022, Ms. Agonizantes returned to Bimbo Santa María as its new production director, the first woman in that role for Mexico.  

“I love this plant and its people,” she said. “I was very excited to return to this facility because this bakery is incredible. It’s easy to imagine our founders being here, and it’s just emblematic of the company.” 

This article is an excerpt from the September 2023 issue of Baking & Snack. To read the entire feature on Grupo Bimbo, click here.