In spite of the deepening financial crisis of 2008, George Weston Limited signed two major deals. In October, it announced that Neilson Dairy was being sold to Saputo Inc. for (CAN) $465 million, followed months later by word that Grupo Bimbo, the Mexican baking conglomerate, had agreed to buy U.S. based George Weston Bakeries, which consisted of the former Bestfoods Baking assets, along with Stroehmann Bakeries, for (U-S) $2.5 billion. Chairman W. Galen Weston noted that the Grupo Bimbo sale represented the company's biggest deal ever and along with the sale of the dairy division would result in $5 billion in cash on corporate balance sheets, thereby allowing the company to consider future acquisitions. In 2009, T&T Supermarket, a Chinese grocery store chain, was acquired by Loblaw.