Legend

Inaugural Inductee

Steve Stavro

Steve Atanas Stavro, founder of Knob Hill Farms, passed away in 2006. Under the leadership of the Macedonian-Canadian businessman, what began as a single produce store in 1954 grew into one of Canada’s largest grocery chains, with 10 locations in and around Toronto. The Cambridge location, founded in 1991, had the honour of being the largest grocery store in the world at the time of its opening. Stavro said he took the name from a box of produce from California. Knob Hill Farms developed relationships with brokers, wholesalers and suppliers around the world to cater to Toronto’s rapidly growing multicultural immigrant communities. He opened his first food terminal in December 1963 and the final one in 1992. Stavro decided to close the stores in August 2000, with the final one shuttering in 2001. At the time of his decision, he ensured all debts, including termination payments to employees, were repaid in full.