The Very Best Bread Company

Long before there were large bread manufacturers, small-town operators delivered bread to residential customers, door to door, street by street. In 1909, Albert Henry Zurbrigg bought a bread-making business from Joseph Farr in St. Marys, Ont. He called his company TVB, as in Thames Valley Bread. In 1922 he began using trucks to make deliveries in St. Marys and the surrounding area. In April 1927 the company added a Stratford bakery at 56 Huron St., just above where the Lions pool is today. That outlet, too, was named TVB, but in that case the letters stood for The Very Best Bread.

In the photo to the right is a red wagon used for delivering TVB bread. 

Like every new business, the TVB Bread Co. had to engage in an advertising campaign to announce its arrival and convince Stratford customers it was selling bread and baked goods that were better than the competition, which in those days included the Keystone Bakery, Ontario Bakery, J. C. Richards, Stratford Bakery and Weitzel's Bakery. With the campaign came slogans such as "Just over the river," and at Christmas a cartoon character called Jimmie Jingle ( see below).

Harry Zurbrigg In addition to bread, the product line featured pies, cream puffs, cakes and rolls. The future featured the introduction of large grocery stores, and the TVB ovens went cold in 1950. Source: Brandi Borman and Stratford-Perth Archives; photos from Colleen Misener.

Personal note: My grandmother (Charlotte nee Mcardle) married Albert Henry Zurbrigg and she iced wedding cakes at the TVB. I remember visiting  her there, and the wonderful smell of fresh baking bread takes me back to those days. Paul Wilker