Recipe Unlimited Corporation is a Canadian company that operates several

restaurant A restaurant is a business 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 food delivery services. Restaurants vary greatly in appearan ...

chains such as

Swiss Chalet Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland *Swiss people Places *Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina *Swiss, West Virginia *Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses *Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss International ...

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 fast-food fare. The chain i ...

and

The Keg The Keg is a Canadian-owned chain of steakhouse restaurants and bars located in Canada and the United States. The original "The Keg and Cleaver" restaurant was founded by George Tidball, in 1971, at a location in North Vancouver, British Colu ...

, 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 () (2021 population 323,103) 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 increas ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, a suburb north of

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

within the

Greater Toronto Area The Greater Toronto Area, commonly referred to as the GTA, includes the City of Toronto and the regional municipalities of Durham, Halton, Peel, and York. In total, the region contains 25 urban, suburban, and rural municipalities. The Greater T ...

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. In 1977, Cara Operations purchased Foodcorp Limited in a deal that included restaurants like Swiss Chalet and Harvey's. Cara Operations also went on to purchase Milestones, Montana's, and Kelsey's in 2002. In the same year, sales for the company were

Can$ The Canadian dollar (symbol: $; code: CAD; french: dollar canadien) is the currency of Canada. It is abbreviated with the dollar sign $, there is no standard disambiguating form, but the abbreviation Can$ is often suggested by notable style g ...

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 Café, is a Canadian restaurant chain, coffee retailer, and roaster which operates more than 190 cafes nationwide. Its headquarters are in Pierrefonds, Québec. Its stores sell hot and cold beverages, pastries, snacks, pre-packaged foo ...

, Kelsey's Neighborhood Bar & Grill, and

Montana's Cookhouse Montana's BBQ & Bar (originally and in some cases, still branded as Montana's Cookhouse Saloon) is a Canadian restaurant chain known for smoked pork ribs, steaks, and burgers. It is headquartered in Vaughan, Ontario and is a subsidiary of Recipe U ...

. 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 and South America, Asia, and Australia ...

restaurants. In 2010, Cara Operations exited the airline catering business with the sale of Cara Airline Solutions. In 2014, Cara had

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

of $84 million on sales of $1.7 billion, 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 ...

was brokered by

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

. Through it, the company raised $200 million, and 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 at ...

, 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 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. 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 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.

Acquisitions

In 1977, Cara purchased FoodCorp Limited which included Swiss Chalet and Harvey's. In 2002, Cara purchased Kelseys Inc. from owner Paul Jeffery, acquiring Montanas, Kelseys and the Outback (Canada). The rights to Outback steakhouse were owned in Canada by Cara, but it was sold back to Outback in the USA because of high food costs. In 2013, Cara came to an agreement with

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

to make

Prime Restaurants Prime Restaurants Inc. (formerly Prime Restaurant Royalty Income Fund) is a Canadian holding company, which operates the restaurant chains East Side Mario's, Tir Nan Og, Paddy Flaherty's, D'Arcy McGee's, Fionn MacCool's and Bier Markt. Founded i ...

a wholly owned subsidiary of Cara. This added restaurants such as Casey's, East Side Mario's, Bier Markt and Prime Pubs to its operations. In 2014, Cara acquired the Landing Group Restaurants. On August 31, 2015, Cara announced that it would be acquiring

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 ...

. 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. St-Hubert is the 16t ...

Chicken CAD$537 million. On September 1, 2016, Cara Operations acquired

Franworks Group Franworks Group is a Calgary based company which franchises restaurant concepts. As of 2016, the company has 99 restaurants operating under three banners in two countries. Elephant & Castle Elephant and Castle Pub and Restaurant (also called "E ...

, and its Original Joe's, State & Main, and Elephant & Castle brands. In 2017, Cara acquired The Pickle Barrel. In January 2018, Cara Operations merged with

and changes their name to Recipe Unlimited Corporation. The $200M deal closed on February 22, 2018. In 2021, Recipe Unlimited acquired the controlling interest of Burger's Priest.

Operations

Restaurants

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

Restaurant operations

Kelseys Original Roadhouse Kelseys Original Roadhouse is a Canadian restaurant chain headquartered in Vaughan, Ontario owned by Recipe Unlimited. Recipe Unlimited also owns other restaurants including Swiss Chalet, Milestones, Montana's and Harvey's. Founded in 1978, there ...

Montana's BBQ & Bar Montana's BBQ & Bar (originally and in some cases, still branded as Montana's Cookhouse Saloon) is a Canadian restaurant chain known for smoked pork ribs, steaks, and burgers. It is headquartered in Vaughan, Ontario and is a subsidiary of Recipe U ...

* Prime Pubs * Bier Markt
The Burger's Priest
* Landing Group * Casey's Grill & Bar *

* Pickle Barrel * Original Joe's * State & Main * Elephant & Castle * Taverne Moderne *

*Fresh Restaurants *Fionn MacCool's

Former restaurants

* Gatineau Brew Works * Pizza Grillia * Steak n'Burger * Toast! Cafe & Grill * Milestones * Coza Tuscan Grill

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 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 many major ai ...

). 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, legally ''Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij N.V.'' (literal translation: Royal Aviation Company Plc.), is the flag carrier airline of the Netherlands. KLM is headquartered in Amstelveen, with its hub at nearby Amste ...

American Airlines American Airlines is a major airlines of the United States, major US-based airline headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, within the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is the Largest airlines in the world, largest airline in the world when measured ...

British Airways British Airways (BA) is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a populati ...

and

Air Canada Air Canada is the flag carrier and the largest airline of Canada by the size and passengers carried. Air Canada maintains its headquarters in the borough of Saint-Laurent, Montreal, Quebec. The airline, founded in 1937, provides scheduled and ...

. Meals were prepared at Cara's nine flight kitchens located across Canada.