Private company

Maxi

Logo: Maxi, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons3

Quebec subsidiary of the Loblaw Companies

Maxi is a discount grocery retailer based in Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1984 by Provigo, it is a division of Loblaw Companies and the largest of Loblaws' Quebec supermarket chains. Maxi is the Quebec equivalent of No Frills, a chain of franchised discount grocery stores outside Quebec, except that Maxi stores are owned by the company.2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 20, 2026.

Overview

1984Founded1

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Maxi D'Estimauville 2022
Photo: Yapeitso, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons5

Maxi is a discount grocery retailer based in Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1984 by Provigo, it is a division of Loblaw Companies and the largest of Loblaws' Quebec supermarket chains. Maxi is the Quebec equivalent of No Frills, a chain of franchised discount grocery stores outside Quebec, except that Maxi stores are owned by the company. Over 7,000 people are employed at the Maxi and Maxi & Cie stores across Quebec. Maxi's slogans are "Imbattable. Point final." ("Unbeatable. Period"), which references their price match guarantee, and "Maxi, ben oui, Maxi" ("Maxi, well yes, Maxi"), the latter of which is often uttered by their spokesperson, comedian Martin Matte, in their television ads.2

Corporate structure

Maxi is part of a group headed by George Weston Limited. 39 entities, 2 countries on record. Switch between the flow chart and the network, and select any entity to see its details.

Built from parent and subsidiary links from GLEIF, the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (CC0); subsidiaries, stakes and holdings from Wikidata (CC0). Each entity in the chart links to its source.

The story

The first Maxi store opened November 19, 1984 in a former Kmart location in Longueuil. At 60,000-square-feet, this store was three times the size of conventional supermarkets. Maxi was intended to be a larger spinoff version of Provigo's Héritage supermarket chain.

By 1987, Maxi had grown to a chain of six locations and three of these stores included a day-care centre for parents to leave their children for up to 90 minutes while shopping. Throughout the 1980s and early 90s, Maxi used a cartoonish elephant as its mascot.

When Steinberg became defunct in 1992, many of its locations were converted into Maxi stores. In 1993, several Provigo stores (especially the larger ones) were rebranded as Maxi locations. Maxi absorbed the Héritage chain in 1995 to reach a total of 67 locations.

Maxi became a division of Loblaws following the latter's acquisition of Provigo in 1999. Maxi used to have stores in Ontario beginning in 1997, but they were eventually closed or converted to other Loblaws banners (such as Fortinos) in 1999.

As of 2026, there are 185 Maxi locations in Quebec.

From Wikipedia’s article on Maxi (Canadian supermarket), shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4

Subsidiaries and ownership

Parent company

Owners

From Wikidata.1

Timeline

  1. 1984Founded Founded1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

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