The war years also saw the company diversify beyond baking with the purchase of a controlling interest in Western Grocers Ltd., a wholesale food distributor with some 700 associated Red & White stores throughout the prairies. In 1943, Garfield Weston also bought paper manufacturer E.B. Eddy Co. of Hull, Quebec, after he purchased controlling interest from Lord R.B. Bennett, the Canadian former Prime Minister. Some years later, Eddy Paper Co., along with subsidiary E.B. Eddy Co., was bought out by George Weston Limited in a cash and stock deal.