Mary Brown’s Plans Aggressive Maritime Expansion
MONCTON–Mary Brown’s is looking for franchisees in New Brunswick and beyond as it aims to open a swath of new restaurants across the Maritimes this year.
In a call with Huddle, Safia Arooz, VP of franchising with the Newfoundland-headquartered fried chicken restaurant chain, said they are welcoming single franchise and multi-unit owners in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. She said Mary Brown’s plans to open restaurants in 10-15 communities across Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
“There’s one word to sum it up: pumped. We’re pumped to bring more restaurants to the Maritimes. We have a very aggressive development plan for both of those provinces. We’ve got quite a list going and we’ve targeted certain areas for growth potential as well,” said Arooz.
She added that if those targeted areas get restaurants as well, the chain could be setting up more than 25 restaurants in the Maritimes.
“There’s huge potential for growth. We’ve got stores scattered in Moncton, Saint John, and Oromocto, and in Nova Scotia, we have stores scattered around Halifax, Antigonish, and other areas. There’s definitely room to grow,” she said.
This growth plan has brought the first Mary Brown’s to Prince Edward Island–a drive-thru location in Stratford–and led to the chain fitting up a restaurant in Oromocto that’s about to open.
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Canada-wide, the chain is poised to open 50 restaurants across the country this year, with each restaurant costing about $800,000 to open. Mary Browns currently has more than 200 locations across Canada.
While Arooz noted she couldn’t divulge many details on where and when New Brunswickers and Nova Scotians could expect to see more Mary Brown’s restaurants, she said the company is in talks with landlords right now in a variety of Maritime communities.
When asked if those communities include smaller ones like Oromocto and Antigonish, Arooz said starting in smaller cities and towns is part of the chain’s game plan.
“We started in small cities and go to bigger cities and it’s worked very well for us. If we have the right real estate and franchisee ready to go, we’ll obviously go to a bigger city, but the smaller cities are 100 percent on our radar.”
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Arooz told Huddle the majority of the restaurants in the Maritimes will be franchises, with a handful of corporate stores as well.
The plan, despite Covid-19 restrictions and economic impacts, is rolling along on time. Arooz said that while the company has faced the same labour shortages and supply chain plans as any other business, those disruptions have not slowed the chain’s plans.
While the company shifted to a pickup model during the last couple of years to accommodate pandemic restrictions, Arooz said most of the new restaurants will be traditional-model restaurants oriented toward sit-down dining.
CHICKEN COMPETITION
When asked for her perspective on the hype that erupted in Halifax, requiring security and grid-locking traffic, over the opening of a rival fried chicken restaurant Popeyes, Arooz said that the chain’s arrival in the region is of little concern to Mary Brown’s.
“It’s a different product at the end of the day and once people have tried it, they do come back to us and stick with us,” she said.
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“One thing I’ve noticed is that people are gravitating towards Canadian, and support Canadian, especially post-pandemic. There’s a patriotism towards the brand.”
Mary Brown’s has two locations in Saint John, one in Moncton, one in Fredericton, and more than 40 locations across Newfoundland and Labrador.
The chain, previously called Golden Skillet, originated in Newfoundland after its co-founders bought a chicken recipe from the North Carolinian in honour of whom the chain was renamed.
Sam Macdonald is a Huddle reporter in Moncton. Send him your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].