MTY Food Group owns or controls many restaurant brands within Canada and the United States. In some cases, MTY is a franchise operator within Canada only for chains headquartered outside of Canada such as TCBY and Yogen Früz. In all other cases, MTY owns the brand with the brand headquartered in either Montreal or Phoenix and may license to other companies outside of North America.
Tiki-Ming, which is a Chinese restaurant based in Quebec, Canada, was the first restaurant of the franchised brands of MTY. The company was launched in 1984 two years before MTY's predecessor, Golden Sky Resources was formed. In addition to the Tiki-Ming brand, MTY has launched further fast food ethnic-based brand food chains including North American, European, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Middle Eastern and South Asian menus.
Franx Supreme (1989) – French Canadian specialties including Quebec's famous "Poutine". Chain also offers chicken nuggets, salads, made to order sandwiches, hot dogs and burgers
Read the full text
Chick 'n Chick (1995) – Canadian and American chicken products, French fries and fast food
Panini Pizza (1995) – Italian and European sandwiches, pizza
Caférama (1999)
Villa Madina (2003) – Arab / Middle Eastern / Mediterranean cuisine
KimChi (2007) – Korean cuisine
Tandori (2008) – Indian / South Asian cuisine
O'Burger (2008) – Canadian and American burgers and sandwiches
Brands acquired
A list of notable brands acquired by MTY include:
Baja Fresh
Cold Stone Creamery
Famous Dave's
Papa Murphy's
Pinkberry
Planet Smoothie
Sweet Frog
Wetzel's Pretzels
Manchu Wok
History of acquisitions
In April 1999, MTY acquired Fontaine Santé, a 22-unit health food quick service restaurant chain in Quebec, for an undisclosed amount. The stores were later rebranded as Veggirama and then rebranded a second time as Cultures.
Under the name iNsu Innovations, MTY acquired the brand La Crémière in November 2001, which oversaw 74 locations (all were in Quebec at the time), from Agropur Coopérative for $750,000. The acquisition, which included the Beaver Tails trade name, brought the company's system-wide sales up to $50 million.
In May 2002, MTY, then still known as iNsu Innovations Group, signed a strategic alliance agreement with Restaurants Au Vieux Duluth inc. that allows the company to franchise Au Vieux Duluth Express, a quick serve version of Laval-based Greek restaurant.
In September 2002, MTY acquired the 20-unit Croissant Plus for an undisclosed amount.
In May 2003, MTY, then known as iNsu Innovations Group, acquired 23-unit Cultures for $9.25 million.
In June 2004, MTY purchase all 105 Mrs. Vanelli's locations plus the Mrs. Vanelli's trademarks from Donato Food Corp. for an undisclosed amount. As part of the purchase agreement, MTY entered into a license agreement with a subsidiary of Donato Food Corp. to allow the Donato subsidiary to continue to manufacture and distribute "Mrs. Vanelli's" branded food products worldwide.
Thaï Express was acquired in May 2004 from Tara Fung Holding Inc. of Montreal through then-subsidiary Matoyee Enterprises Inc.
In September 2006, MTY acquired the 47 stores of Sushi Shop for $7.6 million. The previous owner of the establishment was made vice president after the deal.
In October 2006, purchased the 25-unit Koya Japan chain from the Sabbagh Family Trust of Winnipeg for over $3 million.
In June 2008, MTY inaugurated its Vietnamese cuisine concept called Vie & Nam.
In September 2008, MTY purchased Tutti Frutti for $7.3 million.
In November 2008, MTY acquired Taco Time Canada from Calgarians Ken and Aarol Pattendent for $7.9 million. Taco Time Canada held the franchise rights in Canada for Arizona-based Taco Time. MTY would later acquire Arizona-based Taco Time through the 2016 acquisition of Kahala Brands.
Country Style was acquired when it had 488 locations, in April 2009 for $7.7 million in cash and $6.9 million in debt.
In September 2010 MTY Food Group bought Groupe Valentine Inc.'s Valentine restaurant brand for $9.3 million, with Groupe Valentine becoming a subsidiary of MTY Food Group. Valentine is a Canadian chain of over 100 privately owned restaurant franchises operating in the province of Quebec, Canada. The first restaurant opened in 1979 in Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec. During the 1990s, the chain underwent a major renewal plan in which the restaurants' design changed along with the company's colours. The company's fare is typical Canadian fast food, such as burgers, fries, sandwiches and poutine.
In August 2011, MTY acquired Jugo Juice for $15.5 million. The Calgary-based franchise operating in the smoothie industry oversaw 133 locations at the time it was acquired. In Quebec, the franchises are branded as 'Jus Jugo Juice' under the company's interpretation of Bill 96.
That same month, MTY also purchased the Mr. Sub franchise for $23 million; at the time it was a chain of 335 sandwich shops.
In November 2011, MTY acquired the 20 unit Koryo Korean BBQ chain for $1.8 million in cash. Except for one corporately owned store, all units were franchised. The chain had locations in Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan at the time of the acquisition.
MTY acquired the chain Mr. Souvlaki Ltd. on November 26, 2012, for $1 million. The chain had 14 stores at the time, 13 in Ontario and one in British Columbia. At the time of the takeover system-wide sales were $4.5 million.
In May 2013, MTY subsidiary MTY Tiki Ming Enterprises Inc. struck an agreement to buy the assets of Mississauga, Ontario-based Extreme Brandz, owner of Extreme Pita, PurBlendz, and Mucho Burrito, for $45 million (U.S.) from the three co-founders, Alex Rechichi, Mark Rechichi and Sean Black. Extreme Brandz's 40 U.S. stores became MTY's first stores in the United States. Of the 364 stores acquired, 5 were corporately owned.
In June 2013, MTY paid $1.05 million to acquire SushiGo, a small chain of five restaurants, two of which were corporately owned.
In October 2013, MTY acquired 80 percent of the Thai Zone restaurant chain for $17.7 million. At the time of the acquisition, Thai Zone had 25 stores and 3 mobile restaurants in the province of Quebec, all of which were franchised.
MTY Food Group announced on July 8, 2014, that it had completed the acquisition of the assets of Café Dépôt, Sushi Man, Muffin Plus, and Fabrika. The total consideration for the transaction was $13.9 million, paid from MTY's cash on hand and existing credit facilities. At closing, the chains were operating 101 stores, including 13 corporately owned stores.
In July 2014, MTY purchased Madison New York Grill & Bar for 12.9 million. The deal involved 14 franchised stores, all located in Quebec.
In November 2014, MTY purchased Café Van Houtte from Keurig Canada. The deal involved 51 franchised stores, all located in Quebec.
In December 2014, MTY paid $7.9 million from cash on hand to acquire Manchu Wok, which had 133 stores in its operations, 114 of which were franchised and 19 corporately owned. During its most recent completed fiscal year, the network generated approximately $95 million in system sales.
In September 2015, MTY paid $3 million to acquire 60 percent of Big Smoke Burger. Big Smoke founder and president Mustafa Yusuf retained the remaining 40 percent of the company. At the time of the acquisition, Big Smoke Burger had a total of 17 locations. Of the 17 locations, 9 were located in Canada, 4 of which were corporately owned. The remaining 8 locations were in the United States and the Middle East.
In May 2016, MTY announced a friendly takeover deal with the Kahala Brands Ltd restaurant franchise company (2,800 stores worldwide). MTY thereby added 18 American brands to its portfolio, including Cold Stone Creamery, America's Taco Shop, and Kahala Coffee Traders. MTY agreed to pay about US$300 million to acquire Kahala. The two companies generated near $2 billion in revenues in the previous year. The acquisition was completed on July 26, 2016.
In September 2016, MTY announced the pending acquisition of California-based BF Acquisition Holdings, the parent company for Baja Fresh and La Salsa, for US$27 million. The acquisition was completed the following month and the brands were transferred to MTY's Kahala subsidiary.
In December 2016, MTY acquired 60 percent of the 5-unit ice cream chain La Diperie for $0.9 million paid in cash.
In September 2017, MTY acquired the Montreal-based Dagwoods Sandwiches et Salades for $3 million. At the time of the acquisition, the chain had 22 locations in Quebec and 1 in Ontario.
In December 2017, MTY bought Imvescor, a restaurant group with about 300 restaurants under the brands Pizza Delight, Bâton Rouge, Scores, Mikes, and Ben & Florentine.
Following an announcement made in February 2018, MTY acquired the assets of Timothy's World Coffee and Mmmuffins from Threecaf Brands, Canada, Inc., a subsidiary of Le Duff America, in April 2018.
In September 2018, MTY agreed to acquire American frozen yogurt chain Sweet Frog for $35 million. The chain had 332 locations at the time.
On December 11, 2018, MTY signed a deal to acquire South St. Burger within 90 days. South St. had 26 franchises and 14 corporate restaurants at the time of the announcement. The acquisition was completed in March 2019 for $4.1 million in cash.
MTY acquired Yuzu Sushi, a Quebec City-based sushi chain, in 2019.
On July 22, 2019, MTY announced that one of its wholly owned subsidiaries acquired most of Allô! Mon Coco, a chain serving gourmet breakfast and lunch.
In April 2019, MTY purchased Vancouver, Washington-based Papa Murphy's Holdings Inc., a take-and-bake pizza chain, for $190 million. Papa Murphy's oversees 1400 restaurants across 37 states.
In August 2022, MTY agreed to merge with BBQ Holdings Inc, a franchisor and operator of restaurants in 37 U.S. states, in Canada, and in the United Arab Emirates. The acquisition was finalized in September 2022. BBQ Holdings was the parent for Famous Dave's, Bakers Square, Village Inn, Granite City Food & Brewery and Tahoe Joe's.
In December 2022, MTY completed the acquisition of Wetzel's Pretzels for $207 million.
Canadian franchise operations for other global brands
Within Canada, MTY also operates as a franchise operator for global brands such as TCBY and Yogen Früz. For a time, MTY was also a franchise operator for Taco Time until it became its global owner.
In 2005, MTY purchased TCBY Canada, which held TCBY (The Country's Best Yogurt) franchise rights in Canada, for $1.3 million. At the time there were 91 locations.
MTY owns exclusive Canadian franchise rights to Yogen Früz for 20 years that began in 2006 due to a $13 million agreement made with Coolbrands International.
