Roundup: Dunkin Enters Canada on a Wave of Fast Food Consolidation
Plus: Ontario's ticket scalping ban is officially a mess, Spotify is raising prices and Telus is getting into home building
Much was made this week of the news that sugar-bomb purveyor Dunkin is coming back to Canada via an agreement with Quebec-based franchisor Foodtastic.
As plenty of the coverage noted, the popular American chain previously operated hundreds of stores in Canada but fizzled out in 2018 after franchisees accused it of failing to promote the brand enough to compete with the all-mighty Tim Hortons.
This time will be different, says Foodtastic boss Peter Mammas, because Dunkin has new ownership in the United States that is committed to growing the brand. The plan is to open hundreds of new locations across the country over the next few years, starting in Toronto and Montreal.
The additional competition to Tim Hortons, McDonald’s and other fast-food chains is welcome news for consumers and industry workers on its surface, but the behind-the-scenes ownership and consolidation is worth noting.
Dunkin, which was founded in a Boston suburb in 1950 and which dropped “Donuts” from its name in 2018, found its current owner in 2020 in the form of Inspire Brands, a fast-food conglomeration owned by Atlanta-based private equity firm Roark Capital Management.
Roark – named after a character in Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead – is gobbling up fast-food chains like they’re chicken nuggets. The company has acquired 23 brands over the past 25 years, including Jimmy John’s, Hardee’s, Arby’s, Sonic, Subway and, most recently, Dave’s Hot Chicken.
For its part, Foodtastic is also rolling up brands. Aside from an existing deal with Roark for Canadian locations of Jimmy John’s, the company also runs Pita Pit, Freshii, Quesada, Second Cup and others.
As Restaurant Business notes, Roark’s performance with its brands has been spotty. While some, including Dunkin, have done well in recent years, others such as Hardee’s and juice chain Jamba have floundered. Subway, which the firm acquired in 2023, is in full-fledged decline despite its parent’s initial plan to open hundreds of new locations.
As others have noted, Dunkin’s return to Canada comes at a curious time. Not only is the chain’s motto – “America runs on Dunkin” – at odds with the prevalent patriotism of the day, but Canadian fast-food chains are also vocally complaining about labour shortages. A new chain with ambitions of hundreds of new stores is only going to exacerbate the issue.
Way back in 2012, when I wrote about the poutine wars for Report on Business magazine, I recall New York Fries founder Jay Gould saying that the Canadian fast-food industry was basically two players – McDonald’s and Tim Hortons – with everyone else fighting for scraps.
Sure enough, Gould got out by selling New York Fries to Cara Operations in 2015 and South Street Burger, his other chain, to MTY in 2019. Cara, which is now known as Recipe Unlimited, is a serial acquirer that owns Swiss Chalet, Harvey’s, St-Hubert and others, as is MTY, which counts Country Style, Mr. Sub, and Mr. Souvlaki among its many brands.
In both the U.S. and Canada, fast food is a business that looks competitive given the scores of brands out there, but beneath the hood it’s actually increasingly being run by fewer and fewer players.
ON THE PODCAST THIS WEEK:
The Hidden Real Estate Tactic Driving Up Grocery Prices
Industry concentration, supply problems and the war in Iran are all contributing to ever-escalating grocery prices for Canadians, but there’s also a serious anti-competitive issue behind them: restrictive real-estate covenants.
🕺 ENTERTAINMENT
Is it too early to call Ontario’s ban on reselling concert and sporting event tickets at a profit a total failure? Probably not, given what’s going on. Not only are tickets still being resold at vastly inflated prices on sites such as STUBHUB, but even the attempts to comply with the law are causing problems. As The Globe and Mail notes, some consumers who are legitimately trying to offload tickets they can’t use on TICKETMASTER are losing money after the site’s fees deductions. At the core of the problem is an issue we wrote about here back in October, which is: what’s the actual face value of a ticket? When resale sites have no way to verify these values, it makes banning sales-at-a-profit difficult. Nevertheless, Ontario says it’s beginning to crack down on the practice. Good luck with that?
Speaking of Ticketmaster, problems for its parent LIVE NATION keep mounting with the entertainment giant now facing a whopping… checks notes… $900 fine in Toronto. The penalty is for a concert last year by metal band System of a Down at the new Rogers Stadium going past the 11 pm noise curfew, with the show instead wrapping up closer to midnight. Live Nation says the lateness was the result of a weather delay and is appealing the fine, which several commentators online have pointed out is equivalent to a couple of tickets to the show.
Losses at CINEPLEX were lower in its most recent first quarter, down 36 per cent from a year ago to $22 million. A better movie slate so far this year, including Project Hail Mary and Hoppers, boosted attendance by 17 per cent and revenue 15.6 per cent to $291 million. In reporting the results, company chief executive Ellis Jacob declined to comment on recent news that Cineplex was sounding out U.S. counterparts REGAL and CINEMARK about possibly acquiring it.
Don’t look now, but SPOTIFY is raising subscription prices for Canadian users. As MobileSyrup reports, prices are going up by between $1 and $3 per month, depending on the plan. The prices are live now for new customers while existing subscribers are getting hit with increases within the next few months. Spotify previously raised prices in 2024 and 2023.
🏦 BANKS
Fintech challenger KOHO FINANCIAL has received access to INTERAC, giving the Toronto-based company the ability to offer e-transfer services to customers. The company says the development is going to make it considerably more competitive as it will now have closer relationships – and better data – on its customers than it did previously, when it was depending on big bank intermediaries to process e-transfers. Koho is one of the first non-banks to join the system, with WEALTHSIMPLE getting on board in 2023 and NEO FINANCIAL last month.
💾 BIG TECH
Hamilton, Ont.-based startup RAVE is taking APPLE to the Competition Tribunal over the tech giant pulling its video-sharing app from the App Store. Rave says its app, which allows users to socially watch TV shows, movies and other media together while chatting in real time, was removed in 2025 because it competes with SharePlay, a FaceTime feature from Apple that enables similar capabilities. The startup wants its app reinstated and $25 million in damages, as well as triple the value of how much Apple made from these “anti-competitive practices.” Apple says the smaller company’s allegations are baseless and that its app was removed after “repeated guideline violations,” which included sharing and hosting pornographic and pirated content.
📱 TELECOM
The plot surrounding BELL firing alleged coffee-badgers has thickened, with lawyers representing some of the affected workers suggesting the company may have mishandled the terminations. While Bell insists the employees were sacked because of clear and repeated evidence that they deliberately swiped their IDs to appear to be at work before leaving shortly thereafter, lawyers say they were given little time to respond to allegations. “That’s not an effort to get to the bottom of what happened,” employment lawyer Daniel Lublin told the Toronto Star. “That’s an effort to support a decision to terminate someone.” Bell stands by the integrity of its firing process.
Despite wireless prices declining over the past few years, Canada needs more competition in the form of virtual mobile companies and foreign investors – so says a Globe and Mail editorial. The newspaper’s call comes as evidence shows that prices from the likes of BELL, ROGERS and TELUS are creeping up again, never mind the skyrocketing customer complaint numbers.
Speaking of TELUS, the company is continuing to look for new businesses given the maturation and slowdown in telecom, and it looks like housing is one of them. The company is in the process of developing a couple of housing projects in British Columbia under its Telus Living brand. No word if new units will require activation or system access fees.
The Competition Bureau is having a look at a deal where MOTOROLA is acquiring BELL’s land mobile radio networks services business for $675 million. The business, which involves push-to-talk wireless communications used primarily by first responders and transit fleets, is big enough to have triggered a mandatory review by the Bureau.
🏈 SPORTS & LEISURE
In an item that’s half telecom, half sports, CANADIAN SOCCER MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT (CSME) scored a big goal this week against ROGERS. The organization, which owns the Canadian Premier League (CPL) and the rights to the OneSoccer streaming platform, may be heading to cable TV after a federal court dismissed an appeal by Rogers to keep CSME content off its airwaves. The organization had complained to the CRTC that Rogers, which owns Toronto FC, was guilty of “undue preference” by refusing to carry OneSoccer matches. The CRTC ruled against Rogers in 2023, prompting the company – which is Canada’s largest cable TV provider – to appeal. “Instead of being viewed by tens of thousands on an over-the-top platform, we’ll be viewed by millions of people around Canada who have linear TV,” said CSME CEO and CPL commissioner James Johnson.
🛢️ RESOURCES
Despite a challenge by the Competition Bureau, Calgary-based natural gas company KEYERA this week announced it has completed its $5.1 billion acquisition of Houston-based PLAINS ALL AMERICAN PIPELINE. The company says the deal will greatly expand its liquids infrastructure business, which is what has the Bureau concerned – the enforcement agency believes Keyera will have a stranglehold over natural gas at a key hub in Fort Saskatchewan, Alta. The Bureau last week announced its first merger challenge since its failed effort to stop the Rogers-Shaw deal in 2023. For its part, Keyera says the industry believes its deal is a positive development for the sector.
🚨 COMING UP
Elevators cost a lot more to install in Canada and the United States than they do in Europe, which is why we have so few on a per-capita basis. The situation is partly the effect of a four-company oligopoly, and now that two of them – Kone and TK Elevators – are merging, it’s going to get worse. Stephen Smith, the executive director of The Center for Building North America, joins the Do Not Pass Go podcast this Tuesday to explain why taking the stairs is no longer an option.
I don’t love Quesada but they’ll do if there’re no other options. Canada does not have much real Mexican food. The variety and quality of Mexican food down south always amazes me. And so many of them are small time taquerias.