Although many of the largest restaurant chains in Canada are USA-based (McDonalds and Yum Brands among others), Canadian-based restaurant chains are numerous and have expanded into other markets, specifically the USA.[1]
Boston Pizza, also known as BP in Canada and as Boston's the Gourmet pizza in the USA and Mexico has franchised 396 restaurants in North America. Boston Pizza International Inc. is Canada's number one casual dining brand with more than 340 restaurants in Canada and system-wide sales of $831 million in 2008.[2] Annually, Boston Pizza serves more than 40 million guests.[3] [4] The first Boston Pizza location opened in Edmonton, Alberta in 1964 by Gus Agioritis under the name "Boston Pizza and Spaghetti House". It took 32 years to open its first 100 locations, but only 8 years for the next 100.[5] The current owners of the restaurant chain, Jim Treliving and George Melville, purchased the company in 1983, 15 years after Jim bought his first franchise, and 10 years after he first partnered with Melville. Store sales growth has averaged 6.3% for the last decade compared to the industry average of 2.2%.[5]
Cara Operations operates Harvey's, Swiss Chalet, Montana's Cookhouse, Kelsey's Neighbourhood Bar & Grill, Milestones Restaurants and other brands. The company also provides catering services to airlines. The revenue for its 1200 restaurants and its airline solutions division in 2008 was over two billion dollars.[6]
Cara Airline Solutions operates about 10 flight kitchens across Canada that serve more than 50 air carriers and rail travel customers. Montana's Cookhouse started in 1995, was acquired by Cara in 2002, and currently operates 90 restaurants across Canada. Harvey's is the 2nd largest Canadian established restaurant chain. There are 200 Swiss Chalet restaurants in Canada and the USA.
"Chairman's" is a coffee retailer with operations in every Canadian province as well as Greece, Poland, China, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. The chain's first store opened in 1982 by Tom Michalopoulos in Bolton, Ontario. Until 2006, its main operation was Coffee Time. In October 2006, the company doubled in size, when it purchased the Afton Food Group, a company whose assets included Robbins Donuts, 241 Pizza and Mrs. Powell's Cinnamon Buns.[7] The company also operates "The Friendly Greek". In all, Chairman's operates about 500 stores across Canada under its four brands.[8]
Cora, based in Montreal, has 121 restaurants and was started by Cora Tsouflidou in 1987. It can be found in every Canadian province except British Columbia. In 2008 the restaurant changed its name from Cora's breakfast and lunch to Cora. Serving such breakfast items as eggs, crepes and French toast it is known for its all day breakfast and heaping mounds of fruit.[9]
Cows is a chain of ice cream parlors and cheesemongers with nine locations in Canada and one in the United States. It started in 1983 in Prince Edward Island as an ice cream parlor. Today it is known for its 32 varieties of ice cream, unique cheddar cheese, and cow themed merchandise. Sales of Cows ice cream spiked in the summer of 2010, after Regis and Kelly showed interest in the ice cream chain.[10]
Restaurant Eggsquis is a restaurant chain with 34 locations (all in Quebec) headquartered in Sherbrooke, Quebec. The bulk of locations are in the region between Montreal and the Quebec-Ontario border. Similar to Cora (another Quebec based franchise) its menu features all day breakfast items like specialty pancakes, French toast, omelets, poached eggs and yogurts served with fresh fruit.[11] The menu consists mainly of healthy eating dishes; non breakfast items are sandwiches and salads.
Grinners Food Systems Limited, the franchiser of Greco Pizza (since 1981) and Captain Sub is a Truro, Nova Scotia based company owned by Trucorp Investments Incorporated. Trucorp, headquartered in Dieppe, New Brunswick, also owns Bonte Foods Limited, Frank and Gino's Restaurants, and Chris Brothers food products. William Hay is chairman of Trucorp, a food and beverage company that ranked 77 on a list of the 101 top companies in Atlantic Canada in 2004.[12][13] The Grinner's division had revenue of 30.4 million dollars in 2008.
Established in Moncton, New Brunswick in 1977, Greco Pizza is one of Atlantic Canada's largest pizza chains. Menu items include pizza, donair, salads, and garlic fingers, as well as the restaurant's proprietary dipping sauces. Many of the over 170 locations in Quebec, Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland operate co-branded with Captain Submarine. Both are quick-service restaurants.
-Captain Submarine was acquired by Grinner's in 2002, when it only had 9 locations (21 fewer than it had in the 1980s). Many of the stores franchised since then also sell Greco Pizza items. The purchase brought the number of Grinners franchised restaurants from 111 to 120.[14]
Imvescor is the parent company of the restaurant chains Scores, Pizza Delight, Mikes, Baton Rouge with a history that goes back to 1968.[15] It was known as Pizza Delight Corporation until 2007 when the name was changed to Imvescor. As Pizza Delight Corporation the company purchased Mikes in 2000 for $14.5 million, Quebec company Scores Rotisserie Barbecue and Ribs in 2005 for $32 million[16] and Baton Rouge Restaurants. Headquartered in Moncton, the company is in change of 259 restaurants across Canada (101 Pizza Delight, 91 Mikes, 39 Scores, and 28 Baton Rouge).[17]
Imvescor was previously a privately owned corporation that held the license for the trademark and intellectual property of the 4 restaurants by PDM Royalties Income Fund. In 2009, the income fund and Imvescor combined their businesses into a new corporation called Imvescor Restaurant Group Inc.[18] The 4 restaurant chains employ over 10,000 people. Total system sales in 2009 were $324.8 million.[19]
This chain operated mainly in Newfoundland (about 20 locations with 1 location in Halifax and 1 in Ontario) until the late 1970s, when it began expanding in Ontario, Alberta and Nova Scotia. Today (2010) there are 38 locations in Newfoundland and Labrador, 30 locations in Ontario, 12 in Alberta and 3 in Nova Scotia, for a total of 83. Drive through and delivery services are available only at some locations. The restaurant chain, started by Newfoundlanders Pat Tarrant and Cyril Fleming in 1969, was named after Mary Brown, the wife of a fried chicken recipe creator. The headquarters are in Markham, Ontario.
Mr. Greek is a Greek-themed restaurant chain based in Ontario, Canada. It is the largest and fastest-growing Greek cuisine restaurant franchise in North America.[20] 14 full service (1 opening soon will make it 15 restaurants), 13 Mr.Greek Express quick service locations.[21] 27 total locations all in Southern Ontario, Canada. Originally a casual dining restaurant chain (began franchising in 1993) it expanded into the fast food market in 1997 when it started the Mr. Greek Express concept.
MTY Food Group is the parent company of 28 different franchising brands including Yogen Fruz Canada, Mr. Sub, Tiki Ming, Mrs. Vanelli's, Taco Time, Country Style, Thai Express, Tandori. Founded by Stanley Ma, originally from Hong Kong, in 1979 when he opened his first restaurant Le Paradis du Pacifique in Montreal; the company incorporated in 1984 and joined the tsx in 2010. Most of the company's growth has come through acquisitions but MTY has also launched at least 10 of the franchises. The 25 year old company oversees 2251[22] (up from 1741 in 2010)[23] quick service restaurants (excluding Mr. Sub locations about 35 of MTY's locations are corporately run, latest acquisitions are Jugo Juice and Groupe Valentine). System-wide sales increased 17.5% in 2010 while the number of locations rose by 57 or 10%.[24]
New York Fries is a Canadian company with 201 stores in Canada, Hong Kong, UAE, Kuwait, and South Korea.
OPA! Souvlaki was founded in 1997 by Nikos Tiginagas and opened its first location in Market Mall, Calgary, Alberta.[1] This fast food restaurant has 64 locations in 19 cities across Canada, 3 in Arizona and Minnesota. It specializes in different kinds of souvlakis (chicken, lamb, pork, salmon) and gyros. In 2010 it expanded in the provinces of British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario.[25]
Panago (originally Panagopoulos) is a privately owned quick service pizza chain with 174 franchised locations in Canada, 151 of which are in British Columbia and Alberta. It is headquartered in Abbotsford, BC where its first 3 stores opened in 1986.
In recent years, it has made attempts to make its food healthier, as provincial healthier eating guidelines became stricter.[26] They offer multigrain crusts, salads, 33 pizza toppings, and other menu items that have no trans fat, MSG, artificial flavours, or colours.
Pizza Pizza Is an Ontario based pizza chain founded in 1967 by Michael Overs. The Pizza Pizza network including the western chain Pizza73 is composed of more than 600 traditional and non traditional restaurants coast to coast with over 3,000 employees. Pizza Pizza fills approximately 29 Million orders annually and recently won a Webby for their iPhone App.[27]
Prime Restaurants is the parent company of the restaurant chains East Side Mario's, Casey's, Pat and Mario's, Fionn MacCool's and Bier Markt Esplanade. Founded in Sudbury in 1980 by Bernard C. Dyer, the Mississauga based company operates in Canada and the USA.
Smitty's Family Restaurants began selling food in 1960 after Walter Chan opened the first location in Calgary, Alberta where it is still based. It is Canada's largest family restaurant chain with 115 locations all in Canada and a revenue of 50-100 million dollars.[28] Employees number over 5,800.
Rôtisserie Mom’s Express, is a recognized leader in the chicken rotisserie restaurant industry. Its a unique concept of Fried and BBQ chicken under one roof in the chicken restaurant industry. Their chicken is marinated whole. The Rotisserie Mom’s Express restaurant normally take the form of service at the counter with delivery service and offer 20 to 30 seats for in-house consumption. BBQ chicken, fried chicken, fries, cole slaw and poutines are served at each of their locations. www.momsexpress.ca/en
Laval, Quebec-based St-Hubert operates 97 restaurants in Canada making it the 16th largest restaurant chain in the country. It used to have many locations outside of Quebec but withdrew. Swiss Chalet has taken advantage of that, growing into more locations but has narrowed its presence in Quebec. Their unique brand of gravy is one of more than 600 products they sell through grocery stores in eastern Canada. It serves more than 31 million meals every year, including 3.2 million kilograms of cabbage, 6.062 million kilograms of French fries, 8.3 million servings of desserts.[29]
Tim Hortons is the 4th largest publicly-traded quick service restaurant chain in North America based on market capitalization, and the largest in Canada.[30] Tim Hortons has cornered the Canadian market for baked goods (76%) and coffee (62% compared to Starbucks, in the number two position, at 7%).[31] The company has experienced substantial growth in the United States where it has 613 stores (April 2011, about 220 more shops than it did in June 2008)[32][33] and a same-store sales growth rate of 3.9% in Canada and 4.9% in the USA.[34] The new partnership with Stone Cold Creamery helped push its US presence to over 600 stores. Sales exceeded two billion dollars in 2008. It was controlled by Wendy's International Inc. for 11 of the 46 years of operation, from August 8, 1995 until the end of 2006. As of April 3, 2011 Tim Hortons oversaw 3,782 locations in North America 3,169 of which were in Canada.[32]
In the fourth quarter of 2010 Tim Horton's profits were 27% more than they were over the entire 2009 fiscal year (for the quarter net income was up 314%).[34][35]
On the Forbes 2010 list of the 2000 top companies, Tim Hortons was put in the 1714th spot with annual sales of $2.014 billion, profits totalling $280 million, assets worth $1.90 billion and a market value of $5.41 billion.[36]
Mrs. Vanelli's is an international chain of Italian food counter service restaurants, based out of Mississauga, Ontario. The chain has rebranded simply as Vanelli's. In addition to their Canadian locations, Vanelli's has locations in the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It has been in Canada since 1981. In 1995 it opened its first location abroad in Bahrain and now operates 110 locations worldwide.[37] Since 2004 the franchise rights to Vanelli's have been owned by MTY Food Group (see MTY's section above).
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