Trading name Laura Secord Founded 1913 Type of business Private | Founder Frank Patrick O'Connor Headquarters Mississauga | |
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Industry Chocolate and other confectionery Owners Jean Leclerc
Jacques Leclerc Website Laura Secord Official site Profiles | ||
Laura secord chocolates 1987
4542410 Canada Inc. (doing business as Laura Secord) is a Canadian chocolatier, confectionery, and ice cream company that was founded in 1913 by Frank P. O'Connor with first store on Yonge Street in Toronto. It was named after the Canadian heroine of the War of 1812, Laura Secord.
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Ownership
The company is owned by Jean and Jacques Leclerc, two well known brothers in the food industry in Quebec City. The Leclercs own Nutriart, a company devoted to chocolate production. Nutriart is a former division of Biscuits Leclerc.
Founded by O'Connor, it was known as Laura Secord Candy Store and Fanny Farmer Candy Stores in the US. In 1969 it was sold by the O'Connor family to John Labatt Limited and remained in Canadian hands until 1983.
Foreign owners 1983–2010
Laura Secord was owned by British owned Rowntree Mackintosh Confectionery of York, England, which acquired it in the 1980s. Rowntree Macintosh's successor, Nestlé's Canadian unit, sold it in 1998 to Archibald Candy Corporation of Chicago, which then sold it to Gordon Brothers LLC of Boston in 2004.
Laura Secord returns to Canada
It was acquired by Jean and Jacques Leclerc of Quebec in 2010.
Laura Secord today
As of 2010, it has 112 retail outlets throughout the country. It has offices in Mississauga, Ontario, and Quebec City, Quebec, Canada
Laura Secord chocolates are manufactured in Canada. Retail outlets selling individual and premade boxes of chocolates, and ice cream, are located throughout Canada. In 2004 there were 174 outlets with a staff of 1,600.