Galen Weston Jr. could cut every Loblaws shopper a huge cheque and STILL be a billionaire
Galen Weston Jr. is officially one of the richest people in Canada in 2025, and if you've bought groceries in the last week, you've probably helped him stay that way.
The chairman of Loblaw Companies Limited and CEO of its parent company George Weston Limited currently holds a net worth of $20.6 billion, according to the 2025 Maclean's Rich List.
That's enough to land him in the top three richest Canadians, right behind Changpeng Zhao and the Thomson family, and way ahead of other grocery and drugstore dynasties like the Sobeys and the Coutus.
It's also enough to make your eyes water while you stare down a $34 chicken at No Frills.
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Despite stepping down as Loblaw's president in 2023, Weston still controls the grocery giant through his family's holding company, Wittington Investments.
And as food prices continue to soar, so have Loblaw's profits — its stock has more than tripled since the pandemic, and revenue grew by 5.2% in just three months earlier this year, according to Maclean's.
It's been a great year for Galen. Less so for the rest of us.
But just how much money is $20.6 billion, really? Well, according to our math, it's enough that he could hand out a big chunk of change to every Loblaw shopper... and still keep the "billionaire" title.
Born rich, stayed rich
Weston Jr. didn't build this empire from scratch. He's the fourth-generation heir to a grocery dynasty that dates back to 1882, when his great-grandfather George Weston bought a bread route in Toronto and started baking his own loaves.
Since then, the family has turned that modest bakery into a retail behemoth that now includes Loblaws, No Frills, Shoppers Drug Mart, Real Canadian Superstore, Your Independent Grocer, T&T and even Holt Renfrew.
Galen Jr. took the reins in the 2000s, following in the footsteps of his father, Galen Weston Sr., who was already a multi-billionaire by the time he handed things over to his son.
Today, the youngest Weston leads both Loblaw's board and its parent company, with the family empire consolidated under Wittington Investments.
Canada's bread baron
Despite his best efforts, Weston has never really passed as a man of the people.
This is a guy who spent his childhood at one of Canada's most prestigious private schools, has a handful of degrees from Harvard and Columbia and holds the keys to the historic British castle where King Edward VIII infamously abdicated the throne.
Meanwhile, Loblaw has faced years of backlash over sky-high food prices, CEO bonuses and various scandals — including a $500 million class-action settlement over a long-running bread price-fixing scheme, in which Loblaw admitted to participating in an illegal 14-year conspiracy to artificially inflate the cost of packaged bread from 2001 to 2015.
The claims process for that lawsuit is currently open until December 12 — so yes, you might be eligible for a few bucks if you bought bread during that time. But don't expect it to make much of a dent in your grocery bill.
And unlike Galen, you probably won't walk away from the whole thing still worth over $20 billion.
Grocery gatekeepers
If the Maclean's Rich List confirms anything, it's that Canada's grocery industry is basically a billionaire's playground.
All three of the country's biggest supermarket chains — Loblaw, Metro and Empire (Sobeys) — are tied to families who rank among the 40 richest people in Canada.
The Sobey family — founders of Sobeys and key shareholders in Empire Company, which also owns Safeway, IGA, FreshCo, Foodland, Longo's, Farm Boy and more — sits at number 35 on Canada's billionaire list with a net worth of $5.5 billion.
Meanwhile, Jean Coutu and his family land at number 38 with $4.9 billion, due in large part to their eponymous pharmacy chain and large stake in its parent company, Metro Inc. (which also owns Food Basics, Super C, Adonis and others).
In fact, the only reason the last two of Canada's big five grocers, Walmart and Costco, aren't on Canada's rich list is because they're on the American one. The Walton family, which founded Walmart, is the second-richest family in the world, while Costco Chairman Hamilton James is also a billionaire.
So yes, grocery empires are making people wildly rich — but none are raking in the Canadian dollars quite like Loblaw.
According to Loblaw, the company made $2.275 billion in profits in 2024 — more than double the $932 million its closest competitor, Metro, earned that year.
Loblaw also increased its profits by more than 50% between 2019 and 2021 — a two-year period that saw the COVID-19 pandemic and the worst spike in food inflation Canada has seen in decades.
And while profits soared, so did executive pay. Weston's total compensation was nearly $11.8 million in 2022 alone, according to the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, all while Canadians were getting crushed by inflation and soaring grocery bills.
Add that to his stock holdings, real estate and inheritance, and Junior isn't just any grocery plutocrat — he's the third-richest person in a country where 1 in 4 households struggle to afford groceries, according to Food Banks Canada.
So, how much could he give away?
According to Loblaw, over 13 million people shop at its stores each week. But let's go with an even more generous number: 16 million, which is how many people are enrolled in the PC Optimum loyalty program (and, incidentally, the approximate number of total households in the country).
If Galen Weston Jr. took his entire estimated fortune of $20.6 billion and split it evenly between all 16 million members, each person would get a jaw-dropping $1,287.50.
But what if he's not quite ready to part with his historic British castle?
Suppose he wanted to hang on to just a little bit of that bread and keep a cool $1 billion for himself (as one does). It would be just a drop in the bucket — he could still give away $1,225 to every single PC Optimum member and remain a billionaire.
Must be nice.
Don't hold your breath
Technically, nothing's stopping Galen Weston Jr. from pulling a Mr. Beast and handing out $1,200 cheques at the self-checkout line. But something tells us that's not in the cards.
What it does show, though, is just how extreme Canada's wealth gap has become — and how intimately it's tied to everyday essentials like food.
Most Canadians don't get to choose between caviar and lobster. They're debating whether it's cheaper to skip lunch altogether.
Meanwhile, the man whose name is on your grocery receipt could give away almost everything and still roll out of bed a billionaire.
Should billionaires be allowed to set grocery prices in Canada?
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