A HOPEFUL CITY AND A CANADIAN CONNECTION.

Owner has strong family, business ties

HOUSTON • Hate the New England Patriots? Blame Canada.

Owner Robert Kraft told Postmedia at Super Bowl LI media night that not only was his mother Canadian, he started his US$3.5-billion business empire in Canada.

Twenty-two years later, in 1994, he had the money to buy the Patriots.

While talking up the merits of Toronto as a potential future NFL market, Kraft reflected on his personal ties to Canada.

“I have Canadian (in me). I would love us to have a team in Canada one day,” said the 75-year-old, who was raised in Boston’s Chinatown district by his Orthodox Jewish parents.

Kraft’s father was a dress manufacturer.

“My mom is from Nova Scotia — Halifax,” he said. “And I started my business up in Newfoundland.”

That business, International Forest Products, trades paper and packaging products. The small town in Newfoundland he referenced is Stephenville, on the west coast of Newfoundland — once a thriving hub in Eastern Canada’s forestry industry.

“I started going up there and developed an international business that allowed me to buy the Patriots,” Kraft said.

Indeed, International Forest Products now is just one element of The Kraft Group, a holding company that does business on four continents. Forbes ranks it as the 119th largest private American company, which boasts the resources of a large global corporation in these areas: forest products distribution; paper and packaging manufacturing; sports and entertainment; real-estate development, and private equity investing.

As for Toronto’s NFL prospects, Kraft said:

“You’re definitely a ripe market, and you’d have the whole country.”

He added, without elaboration: “I think there probably will be five to seven teams changing hands over the next five to seven years.”

Robert Kraft