Wendy’s Launches Franchise Initiative to Boost Growth in Canada

The Wendy’s Company announced today a new franchise recruitment initiative, Own Your Opportunity, that will create pathways for Canadian entrepreneurs who want to grow with the Wendy’s System through franchising. The initiative creates expanded restaurant ownership opportunities for all and supports the Company’s goal of increasing restaurant ownership among underrepresented populations. 

“To be the best Wendy’s we can be, we must make available opportunities for everyone who wants to grow with us, including women and those who are ethnically diverse,” says Wendy’s Senior Vice President and Managing Director, UK & Canada, Paul Hilder. “The Wendy’s brand truly thrives when our System reflects the diversity of our customers and restaurant teams, and when our franchisees are highly engaged and growing together with us.”

In 2021, Wendy’s announced new goals to advance the Company’s corporate responsibility platform, Good Done Right. Included was a goal to increase the representation of underrepresented populations among Company leadership and management, as well as the diversity of Wendy’s franchisees. Wendy’s believes that over time the Own Your Opportunity initiative will help advance this goal by providing more pathways for all, including for diverse franchisees who want to join the Wendy’s family.

To help all franchise applicants Own Your Opportunity, Wendy’s has:

• Created more competitive liquidity and net worth requirements for all new franchise applicants.
• Continued dialogues with preferred Canadian lenders to expand economic opportunities for new franchisees by bridging lending gaps and empowering entrepreneurs. 
• Supported franchisees through the Build-to-Suit development fund to help fuel growth in underdeveloped trade areas, where Wendy’s secures and builds restaurant locations and hands over turnkey solutions to franchisees. Priority will be given to those franchisee candidates who cannot otherwise access the required capital for new restaurant development. First introduced in Canada in 2015, this fund has supported the opening of approximately 25 restaurants in Canada to-date.
• Introduced new innovative restaurant formats, which can help enable ownership in the Wendy’s System with a lower initial financial commitment. 
• Conducted franchise surveys and held various focus group discussions and business reviews to help identify tools and resources most beneficial in helping existing franchisees thrive and grow.

“We’ve seen first-hand how diversity of thought and experience brings new ideas and innovations to Wendy’s, which will help us continue to grow together for decades to come,” says Abigail Pringle, Wendy’s President, International and Chief Development Officer. “When you become a Wendy’s franchisee, you own more than a great restaurant – you Own Your Opportunity, with a path to prosper and the prospect to lead within a thriving and beloved restaurant brand.”