At the bakery now known as Bimbo Santa María, a dream was born, a bakery that would “make truly good, nutritious, tasty, fresh bread … to do it in the right way, amid cleanliness and as perfect as possible, for nurture and pleasure, reaching every household in Mexico.” That baking company today is the largest in the world, Grupo Bimbo SAB de CV, Mexico City, which strives to be a sustainable, highly productive and deeply humane company, a goal co-founder and former Chief Executive Officer Lorenzo Servitje instilled from the start. While the baking industry is full of dreams that started and crumbled or those that simply pay lip service to mission statements and sustainability goals, Grupo Bimbo is not one of them. This is a dream that was realized, from its executive leadership owning and walking out the mission to the people on the frontline making it a reality every day. 

The company’s annual reports to its shareholders detail the ambitious goals it has set to make a tangible positive impact on its consumers, employees, communities and planet, and show how Grupo Bimbo is putting its money where its mouth is. But more importantly, these annual reports demonstrate how Grupo Bimbo is actually achieving those targets and making progress on those set for 2025, 2030 and 2050. As a quintessential millennial concerned about climate change, reading through Grupo Bimbo’s Nourishing a Better World plan gives me hope that this is achievable in a way that does not destroy industry in the process.

While the annual reports show the quantifiable results and the path for Grupo Bimbo to live out its mission, it doesn’t compare to the experience of visiting the company’s facilities in Mexico City or talking to its employees. So many workers I spoke to on and off the record, who represented both the production room and the corporate offices, described Grupo Bimbo as the dream job. Its products were woven into their childhoods and families. It’s a business with a reputation for providing career opportunities that will always challenge and help you grow. It’s a company that they see as prioritizing people again and again and giving back to the communities that have made the business what it is today. 

As Paola Agonizantes, production director, Bimbo Santa María, explained to me, so many in Mexico see Grupo Bimbo living out its values, values the people of Mexico identify with themselves.

“There should be more companies like Grupo Bimbo,” she said. “Grupo Bimbo reflects the importance of people and how growing your people helps you grow the business. Every day I work in this company, I learn so much for my career, and it has given me so much.”

Visiting Grupo Bimbo in Mexico City is an inspiring experience of what is possible when a company strives to do more than just turn a profit. While business is important, Grupo Bimbo doesn’t forget that it doesn’t move forward without people and the planet, whether it’s the consumers who choose their products, employees who get products to the shelves or the planet that supports those products through agriculture.