W. Galen Weston, retail and food executive, dead at 80
TORONTO — Canadian retail kingpin and philanthropist W. Galen Weston has died at age 80, George Weston Ltd. announced Tuesday.
The Toronto-based company said he died peacefully at home Monday after “a long illness faced with courage and dignity.”
Weston previously held executive and senior roles at food, retail and real estate giants his family founded or led including Loblaw Companies Ltd., Choice Properties, Selfridges Group and Weston Foods.
He retired as chairman of George Weston Limited in 2016 to make room for his son Galen G. Weston, a tradition set by his father, W. Garfield Weston, who also stepped down at the age of 75.
“My father’s greatest gift was inspiring those around him to achieve more than they thought possible,” said Galen G. Weston, who is also executive chairman and director of Loblaw, in a statement.
“In our business and in his life he built a legacy of extraordinary accomplishment and joy.”
Those accomplishments and joys include a 55-year marriage to wife Hilary, a former Ontario lieutenant-governor, and their two children: Weston Jr. and Alannah Weston, chair of the Selfridges Group.
The family’s roots in business began with W. Galen Weston’s grandfather, George Weston. He was a Toronto bread salesman and former baker’s apprentice, who bought a bread route from his employer and went into business himself in 1882.
W. Galen’s father, W. Garfield Weston, took the family’s food and retail pursuits international and in 1953, George Weston Limited expanded its grocery business, acquiring a majority control of Loblaw Cos. Inc.
With wife Reta, W. G. Weston had nine children. Born on Oct. 29, 1940 in England, W. Galen was the youngest.
W. Galen Weston, also known as Willard Gordon Galen Weston, studied arts and science at the University of Western Ontario and married Irish model Hilary Frayne in 1966.
The couple returned to Toronto in 1972 to rescue the family’s Loblaw grocery chain, which was on the verge of bankruptcy.
Under Weston’s leadership, he closed down underperforming stores and modernized remaining locations, eventually reinvigorating the brand. Today it’s the largest Canadian grocery chain.
He focused largely on marketing and product development, hiring William Shatner to star in Loblaw adds, earmarking millions for product development and launched the No Name and President’s Choice brands in 1978 and 1984, respectively.
In 2003 Weston bought the Selfridges Group, which owns upscale retailers, Selfridges in the U.K., Holt Renfrew in Canada Ireland’s Brown Thomas and de Bijenkorf in the Netherlands.
“The luxury retail industry has lost a great visionary,” said daughter Alannah Weston, the company’s chairwoman, in a statement.
“His energy electrified those of us who were lucky enough to work alongside him to reimagine what customer experience could be.”
Weston and his family are also known for his charitable endeavours.
In 2014, the family donated $50 million to start The Weston Brain Institute, a research facility aimed at finding treatments for Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and ALS.
In July 2016, it donated another $50 million to the centre.
The family has also taken a special interest in the arts, making donations to the Royal Ontario Museum, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Ontario Science Centre, the Canadian Canoe Museum, the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum, the Banff Centre’s Arts Building and the Mendel Art Gallery.