A company that owns multiple restaurants in Burnaby is selling off one of its most famous brands.
Recipe Unlimited – which operates the Keg, Swiss Chalet and New York Fries in Burnaby - is selling off Milestones to another major Canadian restaurant player. Recipe Unlimited announced June 14 the sale of Milestones to Quebec-based Foodtastic Inc.
The company used to run Milestones on Lougheed Highway in Brentwood before the property was redeveloped.
The company says it is focusing on "younger" brands "that offer attractive opportunities for accelerated new restaurant growth."
"By selling Milestones to an experienced operator like Foodtastic, the transaction should enable both companies to accelerate growth and better serve their customers," said Recipe CEO Frank Hennessey. "This transaction enables Recipe to further rationalize our portfolio to focus on large brands that generate significant free cash flow and dominate their segment with younger brands that offer attractive opportunities for accelerated new restaurant growth. While it is always difficult to depart with valued franchisees and teammates, we feel that Foodtastic is the right parent for Milestones at this stage of its history."
Recipe Unlimited owns several restaurant chains familiar to Metro Vancouver residents, like Montana's and Original Joe's, however its concentration is decidedly based in eastern Canada, with a number of chains with dwindling or no presence in British Columbia, like Swiss Chalet, Elephant & Castle, and East Side Mario's, among many others, on its roster.
Foodtastic, on the other hand, is the franchisor for numerous chains with deep ties to Quebec, like La Belle et La Boeuf, Rotisseries Benny, and L'Gros Luxe. One of its brands, the plant-based fast casual Montreal chain Copper Branch, opened its first - and only - Vancouver location in Yaletown in March 2020.
Now it appears Foodtastic's strategy is to bring Milestones to Quebec; what that means for any expansion in B.C. for the locally-born chain remains to be seen.
In late October 2020, Recipe Unlimited shuttered side-by-side locations of some of their last remaining Swiss Chalet and Harvey's outposts in B.C.
Earlier in 2020, the company had closed its Montana's location in Coquitlam Centre permanently, too.
Milestones currently operates locations in West Vancouver, Tsawwassen, Langley, Surrey, and Coquitlam. Further afield in B.C. are outposts in Abbotsford, Whistler, Victoria, and Kelowna.
- With additional reporting by Lindsay William-Ross
