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 Beerยฎ 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still includes classics such as root beer, the restaurants themselves have changed over the years with drive-ins having been replaced by free-standing restaurants with drive-thru services.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.