As one of Canada’s fastest-growing restaurant companies, Redberry Restaurants, a multi-brand Restaurant Franchisee, finished 2024 with a number of impressive wins that catapulted the company’s growth, including hiring nearly 3,000 people, opening 27 new locations and winning the Foodservice and Hospitality Magazine’s Pinnacle Award for Company of the Year.
“This was a banner year for Redberry,” said Ken Otto, CEO of Redberry. “2024 was marked by significant growth of the business across all brands, on boarding Jersey Mike’s, deeper investment in our people, supporting the communities we operate in, and recognition of our best-in-class operations. Last year’s success has positioned our company for incredible growth in 2025.
“This year wasn’t just about adding to the headcount. We invested in our team and demonstrated that Redberry is a place where people can build their careers.
“We believe we have amazing brand partners, and they are the thoroughbreds of the Canadian QSR industry. Burger King is a great, dominant player with room to grow in Canada. Taco Bell has enjoyed phenomenal success in North America, and there’s white space in Canada to keep going. And Jersey Mike’s, being a new entrant into the sandwich category in Canada, we have coast-to-coast opportunities and are capitalizing on very strong openings in 2024.”
Setting the Stage for Growth: Record Expansion Across Canada
Last year marked exciting momentum for Burger King, Taco Bell and Jersey Mike’s locations across Canada. Redberry opened 14 new Burger King locations and re-modeled 20 others, four of which featured the brand-new Sizzle design. This expansion solidified Redberry as Burger King’s largest and fastest growing franchisee in Canada, explained the company.
Redberry also opened a record number of new Taco Bell locations. There were 11 opened in 2024, with two more currently under construction and opening in early 2025.
2024 saw Redberry onboarding its new brand partner with Jersey Mike’s, by way of acquiring two stores and building three new ones. These three new stores have quickly become some of the busiest Jersey Mike’s in all of North America.
Otto said the company ended 2024 with 204 locations – seven Jersey Mike’s, 32 Taco Bells and 165 Burger Kings.
Investing in People for Long-Term Success
Redberry grew the size of its team at a historic rate, making 2,900 new field hires and 23 RSC hires.
“These include bolstering our leadership team, with the hiring of Jorge Picanco as Vice President of Construction and Design, and Chelsea Kellock as Vice President of Marketing. With ambitious plans to open over 100’s of new Burger King, Taco Bell and Jersey Mike’s locations across Canada in the next decade, they will be instrumental in helping achieve these goals,” it said.
“The company also brought in Paul Pascal, Director of Jersey Mike’s, Stephen Scarrow, Senior Marketing Manager, and Paul Day, Regional Manager for Western Canada, to help drive the expansion of Jersey Mike’s throughout Canada.
“Redberry made over 250 different promotions, including the promotion of Robert Masson as Chief Financial and Development Officer, and Rick Di Donato as Vice President of Real Estate. The company spent over 29,000 hours training team members in 2024, and the results speak for themselves–the company saw annual turnover rates drop to 54%, significantly below the industry average of 130-140%.”
Supporting the community
Redberry said its mission has always been to leave a positive impact on the communities it operates in, and 2024 was no exception. Redberry served almost 25 million guests across Canada with big smiles, fast service, super clean stores, and of course the best burgers, tacos and subs!
“Redberry demonstrated a proud commitment to the Burger King Foundation–helping raise over $144,000 for scholarships to team members and the public–by hosting in-store initiatives and contributing corporate donations,” it said.
“In its second full year in Canada, the Taco Bell Foundation more than doubled its donations, raising $89,500. The scholarships from the Foundation supports Canadian youth in achieving their full potential through program support such as Junior Achievement Canada, Community Grants, and more.
“Jersey Mike’s raised $18,729 for Make a Wish Canada to help grant life-changing wishes for children with critical illnesses. Jersey Mike’s Brantford location went above and beyond, raising $2,400 for Child Hunger Brantford in just the month of December.”
The company said it also expanded its community presence through strategic partnerships, including a collaboration between Burger King and the Western Mustangs athletic program.
National Recognition
The success Redberry has achieved in the last year is exemplified by winning the Pinnacle Award for Company of Year, given by Foodservice and Hospitality Magazine. The award is a testament to the hard work of the entire team to deliver on our goals of growth and community impact.
Over the course of the year, Redberry was featured in nearly 600[1] media articles in outlets across Canada, covering the brand’s stories and announcements. Some of the most popular stories included new location openings and new Burger King Sizzle design, thought leadership from Redberry’s executive leadership team, new hires, and job opportunities at the company.
And Redberry knows how to make the best Whoppers. One of Redberry’s team members from a Burger King London location, Devki Gaha, was the winner from over 7,000 North American restaurants of the “Whopper Challenge” – a competition to build the perfect Whopper. Devki made it to the finals held in Las Vegas and won 1st place, winning $10,000 USD.
Looking ahead to 2025
2025 will be another big year for Redberry, with continued plans for growth throughout Canada. This includes opening 35 new stores across the Burger King, Taco Bell, and Jersey Mike’s brands, and hiring 1,700 new people.
“For Burger King, we’d like to open between six and 10. The same range for Taco Bell. And Jersey Mike’s will be between 15 and 20,” said Otto.
It also represents Redberry’s 20th year in operations.
“Our momentum heading into 2025 is stronger than ever,” said Otto. “With our ambitious expansion plans and continued investment in our people and communities, we’re well-positioned to remain one of Canada’s fastest-growing restaurant companies.
“Consumers are cautious. What’s great about Burger King and Taco Bell is each brand has a really defendable value pillar to its marketing mix. It doesn’t mean everything is value. We sell lots of premium products at both Burger King and Taco Bell but each has a really productive value section. Canadians, especially now, with interest rates still relatively high and perhaps economic growth is a little slow, we have great value offerings to them.
“For Jersey Mike’s, there’s a real love affair with what they’re bringing to Canada with their quality and just a different way of freshly slicing their meats and cheeses, and cooking their hot subs right in front of you. It’s a real compelling brand proposition that Canadians seem to love.
“Our commitment at Jersey Mike’s is to build a total of 300 in the next 10 years, coast to coast. We think that’s a very achievable target. At Taco Bell and Burger King, we see continuous growth year over year. The most challenging part of that sector is drive-thru space. You need to be patient to wait for great sites. We work in collaboration with Burger King and Taco Bell to be patient to find those good drive-thru sites and get them open well as well.”
I can’t wait for a Jersey Mikes in the Metro Vancouver region. Definitely a high quality sub, particularly for fast food.