Farm Boy is an Ottawa

Ottawa

Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 based Eastern Ontario

Eastern Ontario

Eastern Ontario is a subregion of Southern Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario which lies in a wedge-shaped area between the Ottawa River and St. Lawrence River...

 regional supermarket chain that sells primarily fresh produce

Produce

Produce is a generalized term for a group of farm-produced goods and, not limited to fruits and vegetables . More specifically, the term "produce" often implies that the products are fresh and generally in the same state as where they were harvested. In supermarkets the term is also used to refer...

, 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 its first store in Cornwall

Cornwall, Ontario

Cornwall is a city in Eastern Ontario, Canada and the seat of the United Counties of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry, Ontario. Cornwall is Ontario's easternmost city, located on the St...

, Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

.

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

History

In December 1981, Jean-Louis Bellemare and Collette opened the first Farm Boy on Cumberland Street in Cornwall, Ontario. At that time, the modest 300 sq. ft. store sold only produce. The second Farm Boy was opened in February 1983 by brother Normand Bellemare in Cornwall.

By October of the next year, the Bellemare brothers joined together to open a Farm Boy on Sydney Street. This 5,000 sq ft (460 m2) store allowed them to expand their products beyond produce with dairy, deli, cheese and meat product lines. An in-store bakery and bulk food were also added.

Expansion

The success of the three Farm Boy stores in Cornwall in the 1980s allowed the family to expand their business into the Ottawa area in the following decades:

• in 1992, on Centrum Boulevard in Orleans
• February 1996, Nepean
• May 1997, Montreal Road in the Hillside Plaza
• November 1997, Kanata on Hazeldean Road
• July 2003, Blossom Park area
• December 2004, another in Orleans
• 2006, in the Blue Heron Mall, on Bank Street
• also in 2006, in Barrhaven on Woodroffe Avenue
• 2007, on Terry Fox Drive in the Kanata Signature centre
• 2011, in Britannia off Richmond Road.

In the fall of 2003, the Bellemares created a Board of Directors to oversee the overall direction of the company and appointed Jeff York as the new President of Farm Boy in 2009.