Farm Boy

Farm Boy is an Ottawa, Canada based Eastern Ontario regional supermarket chain that sells primarily fresh produce, baked goods, organic foods, dairy, deli, meat, fish and some prepared products (usually with no additives or preservatives) including a private label line. The company started in December 1981, with their first store in Cornwall, Ontario.

Their primary jingle is It's a farm boy day, so shop the farm boy way. Their current slogan can be found under the Farm Boy sign on their stores, "It's All About The Food."

History

The company was founded by the Bellemare family in 1981 in Cornwall, Ontario. Jean-Louis and Colette Bellemare opened the first Farm Boy on Cumberland Street. The second Farm Boy was opened in February 1983 by Normand Bellemare.

By October of the next year, the Bellemares opened a Farm Boy on Sydney Street. This 5000 sqft (464.52 m²). store allowed for them to expand their products beyond produce and the grocery store started to offer dairy, deli, cheese and meat product lines. An in-store bakery and bulk food were also added. Recently, the Cornwall bakery section has been offering selections from Première Moisson, a chain of high-quality artisanal bakeries located throughout the province of Quebec.

This new Farm Boy, situated next to the public elementary school Horizon-Jeunesse created a milk program whereby the students at the school could buy a quarter liter of milk (and later chocolate milk) for the very low price of 35 cents. Heavily involved in community and local charitable events, Farm Boy soon became an important staple of Cornwall. This was especially true for the large French minority of the city as the stores were owned and operated by Francophones.

As of 2009, the only Farm Boy store in Cornwall is at the Sydney Street location.

Expansion

By 1992, the success of Farm Boy in Cornwall allowed the family to expand their business into other regions. Another brother, Daniel joined them and throughout the 90s, they opened a series of stores in the Ottawa region. These stores are Orleans on Centrum Boulevard in 1992, Nepean in February 1996, Ottawa on Montreal Road in the Hillside Plaza in May 1997, Kanata on Hazeldean Road in November 1996, Ottawa in the Blossom Park area in July 2003 and again in Orleans in December 2004. New stores were opened at the Blue Heron Plaza, on Bank Street, on Woodroffe Ave in Barrhaven, and in 2007 a store on Terry Fox Road in the Kanata Signature centre.

As of 2009, store consolidation over the years as expansion occurred left Farm Boy with a total of nine stores; eight in Ottawa (one in Orleans, two in Kanata, one in Barrhaven, two on Bank Street, one on Montreal Road, one on Merivale Road) and one in Cornwall, on Sydney Street.

In the fall of 2003, the Bellemares created a Board of Directors to oversee the overall direction of the company and appointed Donny Milito as the new President of Farm Boy.