QuickBite Collective, a relatively new player in the Canadian quick service restaurant space, is continuing to build its footprint across Canada with strong sales growth across its three brands – Teriyaki Experience, Burgers n’ Fries Forever (BFF) and Maverick’s Donut Company.
Although the company was founded in 2024, its legacy brand Teriyaki Experience is celebrating 40 years in business and has just posted double-digit sales growth this past quarter at a time when many legacy QSR brands are facing declines.
Hadi Chahin, President of QuickBite Collective said overall in the industry there’s definitely a drop in sales across all the brands, especially the legacy brands or the big guys.
“The major chains have seen quite a dip year over year from last year and into this year for sure. From what I hear from different colleagues and owners, January and February of this year were probably some of the lowest on record in terms of their sales,” he said.
“That’s why we were happy to see where Teriyaki landed in the first quarter because it actually outperformed the market. Now, part of it is the changes that we did to the brand, obviously, in terms of the rebranding, the marketing, the menu development, and on multiple levels.
“The other part is I do believe also that the Asian category is in growth. It was trending over the last few years in the U.S., and I think it’s trending right now in Canada. We had a period of time prior where chicken was trending as chicken sandwiches, and then shawarma was trending.
“I do believe that our brands today, between the smash burger and the Asian category, are definitely high on what people are looking for.”
There are currently 12 Burgers and Fries locations with another 10 under construction this year.
With Teriyaki Experience, there are 36 with another seven coming up this year, and more next year.
And with Mavericks, there are 19 locations, with five opening this year.
“With Burgers and Fries, originally it was mostly here in Ontario. We just opened our first location in British Columbia at UBC. From there, we have another four locations opening this year between the mainland and Victoria,” explained Chahin.
“So we have two locations happening in Victoria and a couple of locations in Delta and Surrey. With the rest of it in Ontario, it’s really spread out in the sense that we have four locations in the core GTA. And then we have one in Sudbury, one in London, one in Cambridge.
“We’re opening Ajax. We’re opening in Burlington and Kitchener. So basically anywhere between Ajax to London, Ontario, that range is where most of the BFFs will be. We’re trying to stay focused that way to open clusters and maximize the presence and the focus on the marketing piece.”
Chahin said real estate is competitive in general for great locations.
“If you’re looking for a good spot that you believe would do well for a restaurant, especially QSR, you’re dealing with larger landlords because those spaces are usually built by bigger landlords,” he said.
“You’re looking at newer plazas or established plazas. It’s very competitive when it hits the market. There’s a lot of competition, the rents are extremely high, and the landlords have the upper hand today on retail units.
“On the flip side, there have been some closures in terms of restaurants, and there has been a lot of rebranding from older brands or from one brand to another. That’s where most brands are looking at opportunity, especially newer brands like us or growth-mode companies.
“We’re looking mostly at conversions because these are restaurants that were operating and still in good condition, and we’re able to take them and flip them to one of our brands versus trying to compete with landlords when they put units out for lease. So in most cases now, we’re actually buying assets from existing restaurants and rebranding.”
Chahin said the company focus on Teriyaki has been on existing locations. Most of Teriyaki prior to its acquisition was in Ontario, with a few in Quebec and in New Brunswick.
“Our focus this year and into next year is to continue to grow Ontario but make sure that BC is our next market. That’s where our next growth will be for our brands,” he said.
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