Name: A&W

Products: Fast Food

Headquartered In: North Vancouver, BC

Where to Buy: Over 1,000 locations in Canada. Find your nearest here.

Website: www.aw.ca

Canadian Owned: Yes

The first A&W drive-in restaurant opened in 1956 in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The drive-in restaurant served burgers, onion rings, and A&W Root Beer® and was an instant hit with the locals. The restaurant quickly spread across the country and in many communities, they were the first branded, national restaurant in town.

Today, A&W has restaurants in over 1,000 locations from coast to coast. While the menu still includes classics such as root beer, the restaurants themselves have changed over the years with drive-ins having been replaced by free-standing restaurants with drive-thru services. The company is committed to serving Canadians with products raised without antibiotics, hormones, or steroids.

Note: For clarity, A&W Canada was initially a subsidiary of the U.S. A&W company. However, the franchisees in Canada took ownership of the Canadian A&W operations in 1995. The A&W restaurants located in Canada are operated as a separate, independently owned company with no association to A&W restaurants in the U.S.