Dominion started from one Toronto store on May 23, 1919. The store was founded by American businessmen Robert Jackson of New Hampshire and William J. Pentland of Connecticut. Pentland was manager of A&P stores in Connecticut and was hired by Jackson. By the end of 1919, they had a 20-store chain of which 18 were acquired from rival
Loblaws. A year later, they had 61 stores. He in turn sold Dominion Stores to
Argus Corporation. Smaller stores were consolidated from 574 to 195 by 1954. The chain also expanded beyond Toronto to other parts of Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Atlantic Canada.
Breakup In 1978,
Conrad Black took control of the Argus Corporation. Moving the Dominion holdings into the
Hollinger Inc. portion of Argus, Dominion was stripped of cash from the daily flow. A&P's Canadian division,
A&P Canada, acquired 92 of Dominion's prime locations in Ontario, as well as a head office, warehouses, and rights to the Dominion name from Hollinger in 1985, the final year of Black's sell off of virtually all previous holdings of Argus Corporation. The chain's remaining assets were sold piecemeal over the next two years. In
northwestern Ontario,
Safeway acquired at least two stores in
Thunder Bay. (Safeway's presence in Thunder Bay prevents
Metro from offering
Air Miles at its Thunder Bay locations.) In
Western Canada, Dominion stores were closed, leaving many suburban
shopping malls scrambling to fill large, now-vacant sections. This event, coupled with the subsequent collapse of several
department store chains, sparked a wave of mall renovations in many parts of the country. Alberta stores were acquired by Safeway in the late 1960s. Much of the remainder of the chain in eastern and central Canada was ultimately acquired by
Loblaw Companies, through several unrelated transactions: • Ontario: The Mr. Grocer franchise banner of 58 stores, consisting mostly of former Dominion stores converted prior to the breakup in an attempt to change them to non-union operation, were sold for $40 million to Loblaw, which soon phased out the brand and signage. Provigo was acquired by Loblaws in 1998.
Battle over pension surplus In 1985, during the chain's breakup, the Argus-controlled Dominion Stores Ltd.—renamed Domgroup Ltd. in April 1986—withdrew $37.9 million from its
defined benefit pension plan for Canadian employees. The amount represented an actuarial surplus in the plan, and Dominion had approval from the provincial regulator, the Pension Commission of Ontario (a predecessor entity to the
Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario) to make the withdrawal. However, the right to make that withdrawal was challenged by the union representing the employees, the
Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. In September 1986, Justice Robert Reid of the
Ontario Supreme Court of Justice ordered Domgroup to return the money to the plan, stating in his judgment that Dominion "had no right, under the plan documents, to remove the surplus". Domgroup eventually reached a settlement with the union to withdraw a portion of the surplus.
A&P's "New Dominion" A&P placed the stores it acquired in 1985 under a subsidiary named New Dominion Stores Inc., and initially operated them under the "New Dominion" name (later adjusting the branding to "Super Dominion"). During a one-year transition period, these stores co-existed in Ontario with the "old" Dominion stores that Argus hadn't sold to A&P, causing customer confusion. At one point during this period, the head of A&P Canada said he called Black personally to ensure the Argus-owned stores' marketing abided by the sale contract, as some ads had referenced those stores still being Canadian-owned (whereas A&P was based in the U.S. and controlled by Germany's
Tengelmann Group). Beginning a few months after the acquisition, and continuing into the 1990s, A&P rebranded all of its stores in the
Greater Toronto Area as Dominion stores, absorbing
Miracle Food Mart, while Dominion locations elsewhere in Ontario took the A&P or Food Basics name. Dominion's distribution centres in
Toronto and
Mississauga retained the old Dominion banner until 2009. ==Key people==