Food Basics

Parent Company: Metro, Inc.

Brand Value: $339 million

Headquarter City: Toronto

Industry: Retail

Year Formed: 1995

Food Basics was originally a creation of A&P Canada, which wanted a low-cost alternative to compete with Loblaw’s successful No Frills stores. From the beginning, the brand was designed to cut costs to a minimum to be able to offer customers products at an excellent value. Among other things, Food Basics did not offer plastic bags, giving customers opened boxes instead. Like its sister brand, Super C, Food Basics competes primarily on price and value, offering discounts if customers are not satisfied with freshness or if an advertised item is out of stock. In recent years its parent company Metro Inc. has remodeled its stores to have them more closely resemble the Super C format. Food Basics is a growing brand, with three new stores added in 2018 for a grand total of 131, located entirely in Ontario.