New fast-food chain opens in Winnipeg

October 23, 2007
Winnipeg Free Press
Written by: Murray McNeill

King Pie hopes for 800 outlets across Canada

WINNIPEG will be ground zero for a new Canadian fast-food chain that its owners say could open as many as 800 retail outlets across the country over the next five years.

Not only will King Pie Canada have its corporate headquarters here, but also a 22,000-square foot production plant that will make frozen pies for all of its Canadian franchises as well as some institutional and corporate customers.

"We plan to have a minimum of 350 stores within the next five years," Winnipeg businessman Maurice McCarthy, the company's executive vice-president and chief executive officer, said in an interview Monday.

The company was to get the ball rolling today with the official opening of its first Canadian franchise—a retail outlet in the food court of Winnipeg's Portage Place Shopping Centre.

McCarthy said the production plant likely won't open until March.

McCarthy and leRoux van Niekerk, a former South African doctor who moved to Winnipeg four years ago, are the joint owners of King Pie Canada. The firm's specialty is puff-pastry pies filled with meat, vegetables, fruits and dairy products.

King Pie Canada isn't the only restaurant chain with plans for the Winnipeg market.

On Monday, B.C. based Boston Pizza International Inc. opened its eighth restaurant and sports bar in Winnipeg -- a 6,900-square-foot outlet on the site of the former Perkins Restaurant on the northwest corner of St. James Street and Ness Avenue.

The Winnipeg regional operator for the Vancouver-based Joeys Restaurants chain also confirmed Monday it plans to open two more restaurants in the city within the next two to three years to compliment the one it already has near Polo Park.

Mark Treen said the first is to open next April in one of the retail power centres at Kenaston and McGillivray boulevards, and will be slightly bigger than the chain's 5,600-square-foot outlet on St. James Street and won't have a year-round patio.

The Winnipeg husband-and-wife team of Richard and Kim Enright own the rights to the Boston Pizza franchises in Manitoba. Richard Enright said that when they opened their first Boston Pizza franchise in the city about a decade ago, they thought they'd need only five for a market this size. Now it's more likely to be 11 or 12, he said. He said they want one of them to be downtown so they can tap into the office crowd during the day and the entertainment crowd at night. The same goes for Joey's Restaurants, Treen said.

The new Boston Pizza restaurant will employ 125 people, while the new Joeys outlet is expected to have a staff of about 165.

murray.mcneill@freepress.mb.ca

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