A&W Canada — Restaurant in Mission

Introducing Fast Food to Canada

A&W was Canada’s first hamburger quick service restaurant and remains one of its best known. The company began operations in Winnipeg, opening its first freestanding drive-in restaurant in 1956. By 1966, A&W Food Services had opened over 200 drive-in restaurants and was a hit with baby boomers and their families. In 1972, A&W Food Services was acquired by Unilever Canada Limited. Since that time, A&W has always been owned and operated in Canada independently from A&W operations in the United States. In 1995, the company's then current senior management team along with other investors acquired A&W Food Services in a management buy-out of the A&W business from Unilever Canada Limited. At that time, A&W Food Services owned and operated 162 hamburger quick service retaurants and franchised a further 308 restaurants.

The Leader in the Shopping Centre Segment

During the 1980s, A&W Food Services became the first hamburger quick service restaurant chain to open restaurants in shopping centres. Today, it is the dominant operator in this segment with approximately 195 restaurants.

Strategic Focus on Franchising

The 1990s brought continued growth and change to A&W as the company aggressively expanded its freestanding restaurants in Western Canada. In 1996, a strategic decision was made to focus on franchising the business. Over an 18 month period, 129 corporately-owned restaurants were sold and franchised and 26 restaurants were closed.

Launch of the A&W Revenue Royalties Income Fund

In February, 2002 the A&W Revenue Royalties Income Fund was created.

Strategic Renewal

Food Services is committed to ongoing strategic renewal of its business. This involves re-evaluating the longer term strategy for the business every three to five years. In 2018, Food Services undertook a renewal of the strategy for the A&W business. At the core of the strategy is the mission “to be loved for our natural ingredients, great taste, convenience, and for doing what’s right, making A&W the #1 choice for millennial burger lovers”. The strategy has six key strategic thrusts:

harnessing the power of natural ingredients;

dramatically improving A&W’s operating standards;

capturing guest visits and growing restaurant profit;

becoming more and more convenient;

extending and strengthening the organization’s CLIMATE;...

Absolutely disgusting a&w. After a year of forgetting how much a&w has gone down hill, like other fast food franchises I avoid.. I decided to give a&w another chance and ordered a teen burger.... The meat tasted like toxic waste, clearly there was no seasoning on the patty. I can see why they have to season their meat... Forgot my dips once again, and the overall experience is always a 0 out of 10 these days. You cant even argue because half of them dont speak english, let alone understand english.. Just speaking facts. This is the last time I will ever eat at an a&w again. Side note: The fast food restaurant business has really gone down hill over the last 6 years, especially in Canada. I often wonder when will the fast food industry realize that employing people on work visas from other countries for a lower dollar amount only ruins the quality of their food & therefore loses the trust of their loyal customers and ultimately... loses business... They don't get paid enough to care. I Long for the days when I would go out with my family to grab a fresh & delicious teen burger with a rootbeer float in a frosted glass, and the experience was always incredible. Now, I suggest you avoid this place at all costs, and go home and make yourself a home made burger. Times sure are different,...

Today service was horrible. My order taken too long preparing also received my breakfast broken egg with hasbrown on it the was accepted by staff serving to me . The manager Mary didn't even care about it. Customer ordered after me got there breakfast faster and also there plates where perfect. However when I asked she told me sunny eggs take longer to make that's not acceptable by me.I saw canadian breakfast with perfect sunny side eggs service perfect to Customer. This place cared about Customer service. I believe the district manager needs to come and trian the staff because no smiles and no sorry for there mistakes. Completely horrible if I can give negative star I would .get this place running better. Get a better manager in the morning Mary doesn't know what she doing there maybe being long time The place needs new employees that care about service and quality of preparation of food properly and manager Mary need morning training if she represents A @ W franchise in mission Completely...