Captain D’s, America’s leading fast casual seafood restaurant, has signed its first franchise development agreement in Canada.
Ontario-based entrepreneurs Ali Saeed and Mudassir Choudri will bring five Captain D’s restaurants to the Greater Toronto Metropolitan Area over the next several years. The brand, which has its roots in the Southeastern United States, has been expanding rapidly with multiple franchise development agreements throughout 2023 as far West as Utah and into the Northern states of New York and New Jersey. Captain D’s also has aggressive plans for growth throughout Canada.
Brad Reed, Chief Development Officer of Captain D’s, said the expansion into Canada is beginning with the Toronto area as the company feels it’s a good transition into the country.
“There seems to be some kind of connection between Nashville (where the company is based) and Toronto. When I visited up there, a lot of those people were traveling and visiting Nashville. There’s several direct flights and Nashville is kind of one of those ‘in’ cities right now. We are a destination for a lot of people,” said Reed.
“I was surprised when I took my first visit up (to Toronto) that people were familiar with Captain D’s. People I was meeting at the airport, at the hotel. We just feel like there’s a great opportunity for value-driven seafood in that area and it also makes sense because we’re pushing more into the northeast now. For the first time we’re going into New Jersey, we’re going into New York state, New York City. So it’s a great opportunity for us to kind of make that transition at the same time.
“In the Toronto area alone we think we could do at least 10 units at minimum and as we continue to grow throughout the country there’s no reason we couldn’t do 100 to 150 restaurants. It’s truly wide open space for us.”
Captain D’s, which was founded in 1969 in Nashville with its first store, has 544 restaurants in 23 states. Captain D’s is the leading fast casual seafood restaurant in the U.S. and was named the #1 seafood chain in the QSR 50, ranked by AUV.
“Our new prototypes we have one that is as small as 970 square feet up to about 2,400 square feet,” said Reed. “We offer about three or four different prototypes and the reason that we offer that is depending on the community and the guest base and what their needs and requirements are. It gives us a little flexibility to put what makes the most sense in each location.
“We’re looking for a lot of residential, a lot of rooftops in the area. We’re looking for retail to help from a driver’s standpoint and we also want to be around other restaurants. It’s kind of interesting what the human behaviour is when it comes to dining out. They normally get in the car and start driving in the direction where there are restaurants and they decide on their way. We find that’s very helpful. From a demographic standpoint, we actually really appeal to a broad base of our guests. All ethnicities, all age groups. We lend ourselves to that. And we’ve been able to keep attracting a lot of the younger consumer through a lot of our design elements and our grilled offerings which is a much more healthy option.
“We are not currently in any malls. We are exploring that option. We do have some in-line spaces in strip centres. We really like to have a drive thru. But as we’re pushing more into the northeast and as we’re getting into Canada, drive thru really is not going to be an option for us. We have the experience to be able to go into a smaller footprint and go into these in-line spaces or these strip centres that do not offer drive thrus. But the third party has really helped us from that standpoint through DoorDash, Uber Eats, things of that nature, the delivery services have really given us a nice boost in sales.”
Saeed and Choudri are both experienced businessmen who own and operate groups of Shell gas stations in Ontario, earning multiple top retailing awards from the company. They experienced Captain D’s during their many travels and have thought for a long time that the brand would do very well in Canada.
“Mudassir and I have been building businesses in Ontario for many years and know what it takes to succeed in this market,” said Saeed. “We admire Captain D’s forward-thinking real estate strategy and seafood niche in the fast casual space. The brand’s quality food at an affordable price point will do very well throughout Toronto.”
Captain D’s market-smart real estate prototypes are attracting both new and existing multi-unit and multi-concept franchisees with features such as highly efficient double drive-thrus, smaller footprints and cost-effective conversion opportunities. In addition to the Canada agreement, recent development deals with new franchisees include a single-unit agreement in New Jersey and multi-unit agreements in New York and Georgia.
Reed said the company is currently in the process of looking for real estate opportunities in the Toronto area. Locations are expected to open at the earliest in the fourth quarter of this year and the first quarter of next year.
“I have not found any direct competition. It is interesting. There are a lot of restaurants that offer a fish sandwich or a shrimp dinner but no one that specializes in seafood with the variety that we offer with the different species of fish, the different ways that we are preparing our shrimp to the side offerings that we have to the meal option that we have,” he said.
“I haven’t found any competition. That’s what’s so exciting about moving in is also our price point. Our average cheque here in the States is somewhere in the $10.50, $11 range and that’s very, very compelling when you think about seafood where seafood in most restaurants you’re going to be paying $15 to $20. It’s exciting for us from the standpoint of bringing that. The lack of competition is another reason that really excites us about moving into Canada.”
