Recipe Unlimited Corporation is a Canadian company that operates several

restaurant A restaurant is an establishment that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and Delivery (commerce), food delivery services. Restaurants ...

chains such as

Swiss Chalet Swiss Chalet is a Canadian chain of casual dining restaurants founded in 1954 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Swiss Chalet has locations in most Canadian provinces, but about 80% are in Ontario and there are currently none in Quebec or British Co ...

Harvey's Harvey's is a fast food restaurant chain operating in Canada, with locations in every province except British Columbia. It serves hamburgers, poutine, hot dogs, french fries, onion rings, and other traditional Canadian cuisine, Canadian fast-food ...

and

The Keg The Keg is a Canadian-owned chain of steakhouse restaurants and bars operating in both Canada and the United States. The first location, originally named "The Keg and Cleaver" restaurant, was founded in 1971 by George Tidball in North Vancouv ...

, and food distribution for large operations. The company was originated in 1883 as Canada Railway News Company that sold newspapers, magazines and confectioneries before moving to the restaurant business. The present company dates to 1961, as Canada Railway News Co. merged with Aero Caterers Limited, founded in 1941 as an airline catering service, to form Cara Operations Limited and the company went public in 1968. The company adopted its present name in May 2018 and its headquarters are in

Vaughan Vaughan ( ) (2022 population 344,412) is a city in Ontario, Canada. It is located in the Regional Municipality of York, just north of Toronto. Vaughan was the fastest-growing municipality in Canada between 1996 and 2006 with its population increa ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, a suburb north of

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

within the

Greater Toronto Area The Greater Toronto Area, commonly referred to as the GTA, includes the Toronto, City of Toronto and the regional municipality, regional municipalities of Regional Municipality of Durham, Durham, Regional Municipality of Halton, Halton, Regional ...

History

The company was originally chartered in 1883 as Canada Railway News Company, selling newspapers, magazines and confectionaries at railway stations. The company's roots go back to the mid-1850s, when Thomas Patrick Phelan was selling apples and newspapers to train passengers on the Niagara Steamboats. Canada Railway News soon moved into the food business, catering to a boom in passenger rail traffic in Canada. Then, in the 1930s, the company began offering catering services to the airlines and by 1941, Aero Caterers Limited was launched. By 1951, it was serving about 1,500 meals a day. In 1961, the company merged Canada Railway News Company and Aero Caterers and changed its name to Cara Operations Limited. The name Cara was derived from the first two letters of each of the words "Canada Railway". Cara was owned solely by the Phelan family from its inception in 1883 until it went public in 1968. At that time, its primary business was catering to the transportation sector (airline and rail meals), but it did operate restaurants and coffee shops in various office towers and airport terminals in Canada. Total sales of all the various operations was Can$30 million in 1968. Cara’s most successful acquisition came in the form of

and Harvey’s in 1977 when they attained full ownership from FoodCorp Limited. After 1977, Cara’s next acquisition was not until 1990, when they purchased Grand & Toy to expand their company. The next year, Cara bought Beaver Foods and Summit Food Service Distributors, a catering company for hospitals, offices and educational institutions and a distribution company respectively. However in 1996, Cara sold Grand & Toy to maintain a commitment to the food service industry and acquired a 37% share in The Second Cup Ltd. Two years later, in 1998, Cara became the largest shareholder of The Spectra Group of Great Restaurants Inc., owners of Milestones Grill and Bar. In 1999, Cara became the majority owner of three chain restaurants: Kelsey’s Neighbourhood Bar & Grill, Montana’s Cookhouse and acquired the license to the Outback Steakhouse after acquiring a 61% ownership from Kelsey's International Inc. While obtaining multiple restaurant chains, Cara sold its interest in Beaver Foods and Summit Food Service Distributors to Compass Group to maintain an organization focused on being restaurant owners in 2001. In 2002, Cara made three large transactions. First, the organization completely bought the entire Second Cup organization, then exchanged its shares of Spectra Group of Great Restaurants for control over the Milestones Bar and Grill chain, and obtained 100% ownership of Kelsey’s International Inc. The rights to Outback steakhouse were owned in Canada by Cara, but it was sold back to Outback corporation in the United States because of high food costs. In the same year, sales for the company were

Can$ The Canadian dollar (currency symbol, symbol: $; ISO 4217, code: CAD; ) is the currency of Canada. It is abbreviated with the dollar sign $. There is no standard disambiguating form, but the abbreviations Can$, CA$ and C$ are frequently used f ...

1.9 billion. 88% of the business comes from the restaurant services, with the remaining 12% deriving from airline catering. On February 26, 2004, Cara went private, with the Phelan heiresses buying out the minority for $8 a share or $345 million, after a short battle in which they had offered $7.625 a share for the 46.5% of the company they didn't own. At the time, Cara fully owned

Second Cup Second Cup is a Canadian coffeehouse chain and retailer of specialty coffee headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario. Its stores sell hot and cold beverages, pastries, snacks, pre-packaged food items, sandwiches, and drinkware, including mugs and ...

, Kelsey's Neighborhood Bar & Grill, and Montana's. It owned as a franchisee Eastern Canadian

Outback Steakhouse Outback Steakhouse is an American chain of Australian-themed casual dining restaurants, serving American cuisine, based in Tampa, Florida. The chain has over 1,000 locations in 23 countries throughout North America, South America, Asia, and Aus ...

restaurants. In 2010, Cara Operations exited the airline catering business with the sale of Cara Airline Solutions. In 2013, Cara came to an agreement with Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. to make Prime Restaurants, which was previously bought by Fairfax, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cara. This transaction allowed Cara full control of East Side Mario’s, Casey’s, Bier Markt, Prime Pubs (Fionn MacCool’s and The Merchant). As a result of the deal, Fairfax became the majority stakeholders and Bill Gregson became the new president and CEO of Cara. In 2014, it acquired the majority ownership of Landing Restaurants including Hunter’s Landing, Harper’s Landing, and Williams Landing. Cara had

EBITDA A company's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (commonly abbreviated EBITDA, pronounced ) is a measure of a company's profitability of the operating business only, thus before any effects of indebtedness, state-mandat ...

of $84 million on sales of $1.7 billion in 2014, but had a 6.4 debt leverage ratio when Bill Gregson assumed the presidency of the firm, because the funds obtained via the sale of non-core-asset had been used, not to pay down debt but instead to expand the business. In March 2015, Cara

IPO An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

at the

Toronto Stock Exchange The Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX; ) is a stock exchange located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the List of stock exchanges, 10th largest exchange in the world and the third largest in North America based on market capitalization. Based in th ...

was brokered by

Fairfax Financial Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited is a Canadian financial holding company based in Toronto, Ontario, engaged in property, casualty, insurance and reinsurance, investment management, and insurance claims management. The company operates primari ...

. Shares of Cara Operations reached as high as $33 after the IPO was set at $200 million with shares to be sold at $19 to $22. As a result of returning to the Toronto Stock Exchange, Fairfax and the Phelan family had control over Cara Operations, 41% and 36% respectively, with the possession of the company's multiple voting shares at 25 votes per share. Through the stock listing, it merged in a 7:8 ratio with Fairfax's

East Side Mario's East Side Mario's is a Canadian chain of casual dining restaurants, managed by its parent holding company Recipe Unlimited. The restaurant specializes in Italian-American cuisine. Individual locations aim to recreate the historic ambience found ...

, Casey's and the Bier Markt properties. The $200 million represented a 23% stake in the combined business, and the heiresses had in 2015 realised a valuation of roughly $300 million. The services of Bill Gregson were acquired in the deal by the merged company. In August 2015, Cara obtained full ownership of

New York Fries New York Fries is a Canadian quick service restaurant that mainly serves french fries, hot dogs and poutine. There are 120 locations in Canada, as well as locations in Bahrain, China, Egypt, Macao, Oman, Panama, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, U ...

to expand its already extensive line of restaurant chains in Canada. South St. Burger would not be part of the acquisition. On March 31, 2016, Cara Operations announced that it would acquire

St-Hubert St-Hubert BBQ Ltd. is a chain of Canadian casual dining restaurants best known for its rotisserie chicken. St-Hubert is most popular in Quebec and in other French-Canadian areas such as Eastern Ontario and New Brunswick. The chain enjoys the s ...

Chicken $537 million. On September 1, 2016, Cara Operations acquired Franworks Group, and its Original Joe's, State & Main, and Elephant & Castle brands. In 2017, Cara acquired The Pickle Barrel. In January 2018, Cara Operations acquired

for $200 million. In May 2018, then Chief Executive Officer Bill Gregson announced that Cara Operations Limited would be changing its name to Recipe Unlimited Corporation and would be traded under the new stock symbol "RECP". On October 1, 2018, the company was hit by a malware attack, requiring closure of many of its restaurants in Canada. The attack required some restaurants to continue as cash-only operations until at least the following day. Some locations were without point-of-sale systems and also without electronic payment methods for almost a week. In 2021, Recipe Unlimited acquired the controlling interest of Burger's Priest. On August 9, 2022,

proposed to take the company private for $954 million. Upon completion of the deal on October 31, 2022, Recipe Unlimited's stock was delisted from the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Labour issues

Beginning October 5, 2015, female employees at all Bier Markt locations were required to wear tight blue mini-dresses, and heels or boots as footwear on the job. The work outfit practice applied to employees at locations in Ontario and Quebec who had previously worn black pants and golf shirt as a uniform. After the

CBC CBC may refer to: Media * Cadena Baja California or Grupo Cadena, a radio and television broadcaster in Mexico * Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Canada's radio and television public broadcaster ** CBC Television ** CBC Radio One ** CBC Music ** ...

investigated complaints of gender discrimination, Cara modified its outfit practice to allow employees to wear the original gender-neutral uniform. In early 2018, Cara's CEO and President Bill Gregson announced that the recent Ontario minimum wage hike to $14 an hour had not adversely affected revenues, with sales going up throughout most of Ontario.

Operations

Restaurants

As of 2021, Recipe Unlimited has over 1,300 restaurants within Canada.

Restaurant operations

* Kelseys Original Roadhouse * Montana's *

* Bier Markt
The Burger's Priest
* Landing Group *

* The Pickle Barrel * Original Joe's * State & Main *

Elephant & Castle Elephant and Castle is an area of South London, England, in the London Borough of Southwark. The name also informally refers to much of Walworth and Newington, due to the proximity of the London Underground station of the same name. The nam ...

* Taverne Moderne *

*Fresh Restaurants

Former restaurants

* Gatineau Brew Works * Pizza Grillia * Steak n'Burger * Toast! Cafe & Grill * Milestones Grill and Bar * Prime Restaurants * Prime Pubs * Fionn MacCool's * Coza Tuscan Grill * Casey's Grill & Bar

Correctional facilities and prisons

Under their subsidiary Summit Food Services, Cara provided commissary and kitchen services to correctional facilities internationally. Sold by Cara to an investor group in 2007, Summit Food Service Distributors Inc., now a division of Colabor LP, is Canada's largest Canadian-owned broadline distributor to the food service industry.

Airline catering

Cara Airline Solutions business assets were sold on November 8, 2010, to Gate Gourmet (

GateGroup Gategroup is a Switzerland, Swiss company providing services to the travel industry, including catering, onboard retail, food service provisioning, and food logistics. It serves as the parent company for four core brands, and is a supplier to ma ...

). Before November 8, 2010, Cara controlled 85% of the Canadian airline market, providing meals for more than 60 of the world's major airlines including

KLM KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, or simply KLM (an abbreviation for their official name Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij N.V. , ),

American Airlines American Airlines, Inc. is a major airlines of the United States, major airline in the United States headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, within the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, and is the Largest airlines in the world, largest airline in the ...

British Airways British Airways plc (BA) is the flag carrier of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London, England, near its main Airline hub, hub at Heathrow Airport. The airline is the second largest UK-based carrier, based on fleet size and pass ...

and

Air Canada Air Canada is the flag carrier and the largest airline of Canada, by size and passengers carried. Air Canada is headquartered in the borough of Saint-Laurent in the city of Montreal. The airline, founded in 1937, provides scheduled and cha ...

References

External links

* {{authority control Canadian companies established in 1883 Aircraft ground handling companies Airline catering Companies formerly listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange Companies based in Vaughan Food and drink companies established in 1883 Food and drink companies of Canada Restaurant chains in Canada Foodservice companies Fairfax Financial Privately held companies of Canada