By Amy Bostock
Redberry Restaurants prides itself on being architects of a different kind of restaurant company.
“Our tagline is that we want to be a different kind of restaurant company,” says Ken Otto, CEO of Redberry Restaurants, F&H’s 2024 Company of the Year. “Our scale allows us to give people huge opportunity to grow. Franchising is a backbone of restaurants and businesses in Canada, and our franchising model is a little different. It doesn’t make us any better, just a little different.”
In 2023, the company grew its portfolio to 201 units, a 16.2-per-cent increase; its revenue by 16.4 per cent; and its EBITDA by 30 per cent. But, says Otto, it’s not just this impressive growth that sets Redberry apart. He says his company is a brand amplifier led by a world-class leadership team, one that believes in taking care of each other, making big bets, getting people excited about the future and doing things that a lot of other companies don’t do.
As one of the fastest-growing restaurant operators in the country — with signed agreements for almost 600 restaurants in the next few years, generating more than 15,000 new jobs — Otto says Redberry is able to offer opportunities many other franchisees can’t. “We have so many opportunities in our own development team. We have a real-estate team, a construction team, accounting, finance and marketing operations at all levels, from presidents to area directors. And because of that, we’re able to attract a really interesting and powerful group
of people.”
It also allows Redberry to sell the restaurant industry as a career, he says. “If you’re a young person who’s coming into restaurants, typically it’s seen as a pass-through industry. People start working in restaurants and then they move on, because there perhaps isn’t the opportunity to grow. But at Redberry, we have individuals who started working in the kitchen at Burger King and they’re now directors. Every day we’re promoting a person to a restaurant manager, an area director or a director. It’s fascinating that we’re able to provide people such opportunities and that’s what makes us different.”
Founded in 2005, Redberry Restaurants is the largest Canadian Burger King franchisee with almost 50 per cent of the 360 restaurants in the country and the second-largest Taco Bell franchisee in Ontario, working closely with YUM! Brands on its Marketing and IT Advisory Committees to help guide the successful growth of the brand. Most recently, Redberry announced its selection as the Area Director for Canada for the U.S.-based Jersey Mike’s Subs brand, with a commitment to bring 300 units to Canada within the next 10 years. The first Redberry Jersey Mike’s new build opened this fall in Markham with two Toronto locations to follow, including one in historic Union Station.
“With the accelerated growth in sales and unit counts, we continue to lead the industry with passion, compassion and results,” says Otto, who joined the company in 2019, just before COVID shut the world down. But rather than dwell on the challenges posed by the pandemic, Otto prefers to focus on the positive.
“First and foremost, it improved our resilience as a company, and frankly, the resilience of the whole industry,” he says. “The whole restaurant industry should be applauded for how we kept going. People needed to eat and our people went to work when conditions were arguably dangerous and unpredictable. There was so much we didn’t know, but for me and our company, it gave us a sense of courage about what we could do as a team.”
A perpetually curious, agile, and determined restaurant company, Redberry’s leadership team possesses a deep understanding of how to successfully operate and grow restaurants in a vast Canadian landscape — starting with its people. Focused on QSR growth in the Canada marketplace, the company is committed to being the franchisee leader. “We do so with the lens of enhancing the communities in which we serve, empowering our employees to lead with kindness and be the best version of themselves.”
To that end, the company launched “Bursting with PRIDE,” led and supported by its executive team, to help define the cultural core values (Partnership, Respect, Integrity, Diversity and Empowerment) of the organization. Otto frequently engages with all employees in the office, participates in restaurant visits, checks in to see how employees are feeling and breaks barriers by fostering relationships with the entire organization. He also writes a monthly “You Otto Know” series to share his personal leadership fundamentals with the entire organization (shared via Nudge and email).
“One of my key goals is to make sure everyone feels, participates in and sees our vision,” he says. “And the pandemic forced us to do that, it forced us to talk a lot to our people.”
The executive team also regularly surveys all Redberry employees (even hourly staff) each quarter to ask “What’s on your mind?” and employees are encouraged to ask questions, which are answered at quarterly town halls. Feedback from these engagement surveys is shared across the organization and all managers are required to have action plan to address specific areas of opportunity. Of particular note, Redberry’s salaried managers scored 6.4/7 (91 per cent) on the following question in the engagement survey last fall when asked if,
“I trust my leadership team.”
Fostering an internal culture of co-operation has also allowed Redberry to expand its reach in the communities in which it operates. In 2023, Redberry led the initiative to bring the Taco Bell Foundation to Canada for the first time, raising $40,000 in the first six months.
Across all its brands, Redberry participates in many community activities throughout the year across four provinces, including head office food bank drives; donating ice cream vouchers to Southwestern Ontario Police services to hand out as rewards when the police stop kids following the bicycle helmet laws; donating to Waterloo Police Services Program’s school supplies backpack program; and partnering with YMCA for job placements and giving back to the community. On a larger scale, Redberry is a partner donor with Make-A-Wish Foundation.
Otto says Redberry’s participation with its brands’ foundations is key, and he’s proud of all of it. The monies raised go right back into initiatives such as scholarships for students across Canada and emergency funds for people who, for various reasons end up in a tough spot.
The company’s newest brand, Jersey Mike’s, holds an Annual Day of Giving on the last day of March where 100 per cent of proceeds, not just profits, are given to the charity of choice (Otto says they’ve been working with Make a Wish Foundation, donating $11,000 in 2023). In addition, the brand holds an Annual Month of Giving for the whole month of March, where any guest that makes a donation of $5 or more receives a voucher for a free sub (retail value of $16). With every new store grand opening, there is a first-five-days charity drive where a guest can make a donation of $5 or more and receive a free sub voucher.
“Because of our scale, again, it allows us to do good things,” says Otto. “Being big, just to be big is no fun. You want to give back. Anyone could be big, but to be big and good is a different story.”
