Canada’s Redberry restaurant company targeting 600-plus locations

One of Canada’s fastest-growing restaurant companies has set itself an ambitious goal  for expanding Taco Bell, Burger King — and Jersey Mike's Subs. 

Redberry Restaurants, a multi-brand restaurant franchisee, plans to build almost 300 new Burger King and Taco Bell locations during the next eight years. 

“The passion and support we get from Burger King and Taco Bell propels us to be their strategic growth partner in Canada,” said Redbury CEO Ken Otto.  “Each brand, a leader in their respective categories, has huge runway coast to coast."

Jersey Mike’s Subs

In 2023, Redberry made the strategic decision to sell its Pizza Hut portfolio to focus on onboarding one of North America's fastest growing and powerful brands when it was appointed as Canada's area director for Jersey Mike's Subs.  

Redberry will acquire the two existing Jersey Mike's locations in Canada and will build five new locations in 2024. This will kick off a multi-year partnership commitment to building 300 Jersey Mike's restaurants, during the next nine years across Canada through a combination of corporate and franchisee locations.

"We couldn't be more excited about our strategic development agreement with Jersey Mike's and our role in bringing this powerful and category-dominant brand to Canada," said Gary Graves, Redberry's board chair. "We were won over by the entire culture of Jersey Mike's and know that their quality brand will strongly resonate with Canadians.”

To fund its new growth, Redberry renewed its bank facility in 2023. The up-sized facility will ensure successful support of future development of Burger King, Taco Bell and Jersey Mike's locations, which could exceed 600 new stores in the next decade.

Redberry has experienced significant growth since being acquired by City Capital Ventures (CCV) in 2019.

"Despite Redberry nearly doubling its unit count since our investment five years ago, we're confident that significant 'white space' for development remains in Canada," said CCV's co-founder and managing partner Dan Kipp. "Ken and Gary are disciplined capital allocators, and with the addition of the Taco Bell and Jersey Mike's brands, we see even greater development opportunities in one of the world's truly compelling markets – Canada.  We have a clear line of sight to building a billion-dollar business."

Redberry is one of Canada's largest quick-serve restaurant franchisees. It owns and operates 180-plus restaurants across the country under the Burger King, Taco Bell and Jersey Mike's Subs brand. It has signed agreements to build more than 600 new restaurants.