Recipe Unlimited
 | |
| Company type | Public company |
|---|---|
| TSX: CAO | |
| Industry | Branded restaurants |
| Founded | 1883 |
| Founder | Thomas Patrick Phelan and family |
| Headquarters | , |
Key people | Don Robinson, President & CEO; M. Bernard Syron, Chairman |
Number of employees | 40,000 |
| Divisions | Swiss Chalet Kelsey's Neighbourhood Bar & Grill Harvey's Milestones Grill and Bar Montana's Cookhouse |
| Subsidiaries | Prime Restaurants |
| Website | http://www.cara.com |
Cara Operations Limited is a Canadian company that provides catering services to airlines and operates several restaurant chains including: Harvey's, Swiss Chalet, Kelsey's, Milestones and Montana's. Its headquarters are in Vaughan, Ontario in the Greater Toronto Area.[1] It was previously headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario.[2] In November, 2008, the company moved to its new headquarters in Vaughan, Ontario near Vaughan Mills shopping centre.[citation needed]
In 2002, sales for the whole company were C$1.9 billion. 88% of the business comes from the restaurant services with the remaining 12% deriving from airline catering.
The name Cara was derived from the first two letters of each of the words "Canada Railway"; it is also an Irish word meaning "friend".
History
While officially charted in 1883 as Canada Railway News Company selling newspapers, magazines and confectionaries at railway stations, the company's roots go back to the mid 1850s when Thomas Patrick Phelan was selling fruit and newspapers to train passengers between Hamilton and Buffalo.[3] Canada Railway News soon moved into the food business, catering to a boom in passenger rail traffic in Canada.
In the 1930s, Cara began offering catering services to the airlines. By 1951 it was serving about 1,500 meals a day.
In 1961 the company changed its name to Cara Operations Limited.
Cara was owned solely by the Phelan family from its inception in 1883 until it finally went public in 1968. At the time, its primary business was catering to the transportation sector (airline and rail meals), but it did operate a few 'no-name' restaurants and coffee shops in various office towers and airport terminals in Canada. Total sales of all the various operations was C$30 million in 1968.
In 1986 Cara provided services for Vancouver's Expo 86.
In 1999, Cara purchased Kelseys inc. from owner Paul Jeffery, acquiring Montanas, Kelseys and the Outback(Canada). The rights to Outback steakhouse were owned in Canada by Cara, but it was sold back to Outback in the USA because of high food costs.[4]
On February 26, 2004, Cara went private.
In 2008, Cara was in the middle of a controversy when 3 employees were arrested at the Montreal-Trudeau airport in relation to a drug distribution network that used the planes for which Cara provided the catering.
In 2013 Cara came to an agreement with Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. to make Prime Restaurants a wholly owned subsidiary of Cara.[5] This added restaurants such as Casey's, East Side Mario's, Bier Markt and Prime Pubs to its operations.
After the CBC investigated, Cara modified an outfit practice that insisted female servers at their Bier Markt locations don immodest dresses on the job. The work outfit practice came into effect on October 5, 2015, and applied to employees at locations in Ontario and Quebec. Under the updated practice, the previous gender-neutral outfit black pants and golf shirt was replaced.[6]
Operations
Cara currently employs more than 38,000 people.
Catering Services
As of Nov. 8, 2010 [7] Gate Gourmet (GateGroup) having met all customary closing conditions acquired substantially all of the business assets of Cara Airline Solutions, Canada’s premier airline catering and logistics provider, from Cara Operations Limited. Before Nov 08, 2010 Cara controlled 85% of the Canadian airline market, providing meals for more than 60 of the world's major airlines including KLM, American Airlines, British Airways and Air Canada. Meals were prepared at Cara's nine flight kitchens located across Canada.
- Summit Food Service Distributors Inc. now a division of Colabor LP, is Canada's largest Canadian-owned broadline distributor to the foodservice industry.
- Cara Airport Services Division
- Pearson International Airport (Toronto)
- Flight Kitchen Vancouver International Airport - 40% market share[citation needed]
Restaurant Operations
- Cara Air Terminal Restaurant Division (Sold to GateGroup in 2010)
- Harvey's
- Swiss Chalet
- Kelsey's Neighbourhood Bar & Grill
- Milestones Grill and Bar
- Montana's Cookhouse
- East Side Mario's
- Prime Pubs
- Bier Markt
- Casey's Grill • Bar
- New York Fries[8]
References
- ^ "footer_cara_contact_01.gif." Cara Operations. Retrieved on September 13, 2011. "Address: 199 Four Valley Drive, Vaughan, ON L4K 0B8"
- ^ "Contact Information." Cara Operations. April 5, 2004. Retrieved on September 13, 2011. "Head Office 6303 Airport Road Mississauga, Ontario Canada L4V 1R8"
- ^ http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/the-fight-for-caras-soul/article1167819/?page=all
- ^ :Cara Operations Limited:
- ^ Shaw, Hollie (31 October 2013). "Cara, Fairfax's Prime Restaurants to merge".
- ^ http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/cara-backtracks-on-skimpy-uniform-1.3294640
- ^ :Nov. 8, 2010 - gategroup completes acquisition of Cara Airline Solutions
- ^ "New York Fries". New York Fries. Retrieved 2016-01-17.
