Chick-fil-A plans Canadian expansion
TORONTO — A controversial fast food company that is known as much for its role in U.S. politics as it is for its chicken announced Wednesday that it will expand its Canadian presence over the next five years.
Chick-fil-A Inc., which currently has a single Canadian location at Calgary International Airport, said it will open a restaurant in Toronto next year and has plans to establish about 15 locations around the Greater Toronto Area over the next five years.
The Atlanta-based company’s expansion comes as a handful of foreign fast food chains are proving that they are no chickens when it comes to Canada. In recent years, Filipino brand Jollibee and American chains Five Guys Burger and Fries, the Halal Guys, Wahlburgers and Blaze Pizza have entered the alreadycrowded Canadian market.
Foreign brands are likely attracted to the country and Toronto
because of the large population, international reputation and proximity to the U.S., said food industry expert Robert Carter, who expects other large companies will watch Chick-fil-A’s expansion to guide whether they should head to Canada too.
“Chick-fil-A is a very beloved brand down in the U.S. with
strong consumer loyalty and I think some of that brand’s awareness will translate for Canadians as well,” Carter said. “When you look at loyalty, it is almost on par with a brand like Tim Hortons in Canada.”
However, Chick-fil-A is unlike most of the homegrown fast-food brands or foreign ones that have come to Canada because it’s known for its religious and conservative values.
The company is owned by the Cathy family, a billionaire evangelical Southern Baptist clan, which attracted plenty of attention in 2012 when its president Dan Cathy said he believes in the “the biblical definition of the family unit” and said those who “have the audacity to define what marriage is about” were “inviting God’s judgment on our nation”.
When the Supreme Court chose to support same-sex marriages in the U.S. a year later, Cathy posted on Twitter that the “founding fathers would be ashamed of our generation” and pronounced it a “sad day for our nation.”
His remarks caused politicians to call for the chain to be boycotted, but Carter suspects the furor will be a “non-issue” for Canadians because he said once issues like these “fall out of the consciousness of consumers, it is business as usual.”