Canadian retail titan W. Galen Weston dies at 80

Choice Properties Real Estate Investment Trust

13/04/2021 22:35

By Moira Warburton
    April 13 (Reuters) - W. Galen Weston, patriarch of one of
Canada's wealthiest families and retail titan, has died at age
80, according to a statement by the family on Tuesday.
    Weston was the third generation of his family to lead George
Weston Limited  WN.TO , an already-prosperous retail empire
founded by his grandfather, which he expanded significantly.
    The family company, now run by his son, Galen Weston, owns
Primark and Selfridges in the United Kingdom, as well as the
Canadian grocery chain Loblaw Co Ltd  L.TO , pharmacy chain
Shoppers Drug Mart, and real estate company Choice Properties.
    Weston passed away peacefully at home after a long illness,
the statement said.
    He was born in Buckinghamshire, England, and moved to Dublin
at 21 to escape a domineering father, the Irish Times reported
in 2014, where he met his wife, Irish model Hilary Frayne. They
married in 1966.
    His grandmother gave him the funds to launch a line of
retailers in Ireland, one of which eventually became Primark,
the Times said.
    In the 1970s Weston returned to his family's base of
operations, Canada, to revive the family's struggling Loblaws
supermarket chain, and helped turn it into one of the largest
food distributors in the country.
    "In our business and in his life he built a legacy of
extraordinary accomplishment and joy," Galen Weston, chairman
and CEO of George Weston Ltd, said in a statement.
    "The luxury retail industry has lost a great visionary,"
Alannah Weston, Weston Sr.'s daughter and chairman of Selfridges
Group, said.
    The Weston family is among the wealthiest in Canada, with
Forbes estimating their total wealth at $8.7 billion. 

 (Reporting by Moira Warburton in Vancouver
Editing by Matthew Lewis)
 ((Moira.Warburton@thomsonreuters.com
+1 416 687-7996; 437-771-3124;))