Roberto Servitje Sendra, co-founder and long-time leader of Grupo Bimbo, died on Thursday at the age of 97, Mexican media reported. Neither the company nor the family has yet disclosed the cause of death or issued an official statement. Servitje joined the then-nascent bakery in 1945 as a 17-year-old sales supervisor. He went on to open Bimbo’s first operations in Guadalajara in 1954, became chief executive in 1979 and was named executive president in 1990. Four years later he assumed the chairmanship, a post he held until 2013, overseeing a period in which the company expanded from 13 to roughly 50 operating units and began its international push. His passing coincides with a new phase of growth for the Mexico City-based bread maker. Earlier in the day, Grupo Bimbo announced a US$2 billion investment plan covering seven Mexican states between 2025 and 2028, a programme expected to generate about 2,000 direct and 800 indirect jobs.