Dorrie Karras, President/CEO of OPA! Of Greece heads up one of Canada’s fastest growing QSR franchises and the country’s largest in Greek food.
He has over 25 years of progressive entrepreneurial and management experience in the food and beverage industry.
Karras was born in Greece and the family moved to Eastern Canada 40 years after he was born. It was a five to six year stint then the family moved back to Greece.
“My dad got into his own business. He did not come from a restaurant background. He worked in the Middle East and Saudi Arabia with an engineering firm for many years. He was a heavy duty mechanic by trade. There was opportunity to move to Canada at the time. My mother’s side of the family had moved to Eastern Canada,” said Karras.
“We moved back to Greece and I finished my last couple of years of elementary in Greece, finished high school and a year later I was in Western Canada. I came to Calgary. My mom’s sister and the family were living in Calgary. I stayed with them for a couple of years. Went to school. I did not go to school for anything business related. What I had my interest in was aviation. I wanted to become a pilot but I got talked out of it because of the lifestyle involved.”
So he never became a pilot after graduating from the aircraft engineering program at SAIT in Calgary.
“I decided to go into business instead shortly after the graduation,” said Karras. “There was always a calling to do something bigger and something I have more control of. That’s where I got into the restaurant business. I ended up in the restaurant business with another partner who was also family and he introduced me to the restaurant business which basically was the gateway to where I am today.”
The first restaurant was a sports bar/lounge/dining room in the Foothills Industrial area of Calgary. It was a successful business. He also became a liquor store owner when the industry was first privatized by the provincial government.
“We got our hands into various businesses. We were in there for almost a decade. We received an offer we couldn’t refuse at the time. From there I got into various other businesses. They were adding to my resume.
“Then OPA became an opportunity. At the time it was a two location brand. We had opened up our first location at Market Mall, second location was Chinook (Centre). At the time, the founder was a good friend of mine and we were having coffee one afternoon. He thought I should join the team. At the time he was thinking of franchising, they were still privately held.”
Karras was on the cusp of continuing on with the restaurant business or going in a different direction, looking at other opportunities, because the restaurant business is challenging.
“OPA truly represented who I am being of the same background. I found it very interesting. It was a new concept. Only after I spent some time doing my due diligence at the location at Market Mall I was convinced that this is a great story. 25 years later I’m running the company.”
Today, the company has about 20 employees in its head office running a franchise system with 120 locations throughout primarily Western Canada with a presence in Ontario which it will be focusing its expansion strategy on and beyond. Locations average about 10 people so there’s probably 1,000 to 1,500 staff throughout the system.
“And we’re growing. Despite all the headwinds and hardships this industry faced over the past few years, we’re still on a growth mode,” added Karras.
“I’m not the type to take a lot of credit on what we do. I like to share it with my team because at the end of the day I’m only as good as my team members are. And I see it very much so as a team. I do provide directions up to a point but I get my feedback from my team members. So I’m very in tune with what they are seeing. I give them a lot of space to do what their expertise is in. I cannot be an expert in everything. I do provide feedback. I do provide opinions. But I very much sit at a roundtable. I’m one of the team members at the roundtable. And I do encourage them to move in the direction that I think will benefit the company but I give them a lot of room to do so.”
Karras has spent a lot of his life in Greece and part of his business background with those roots is on an emphasis of customer service and the quality of the food.
“It’s very fresh in nature with real fresh ingredients and that’s what our focus has been. There’s a lot of ideas we bring forward to the table for many developments. I always try to stay true to what the brand is. And the brand is primarily Greek focused and to me that’s parallel to having good real ingredients on our palate,” he said.
“It’s also the customer service. I think if we can replicate how that Greek culture brings in the customer, the warmth of having the customer feel welcome to your business, I think it’s also a great way of looking at your business. If you have those key ingredients, customer service and your food, and of course everything in between, the cleanliness of the store, the maintenance of your store, it will only bring success.
“So we try to emphasize when we recruit new franchisees that this is how important it is for the success of your business. The key ingredients. They’re simplified but those I think are the pillars for any business. But for a restaurant business for sure.”
Related articles:
- OPA! of Greece Rapidly Expanding Across Canada, Focusing on Streetfront Locations and Eyeing US Market Growth [Interview]
- Video Interview: OPA! Bringing Greek Cuisine To More And More Canadians
