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Monday, April 21, 2025

Is New York Fries American?—the Canadian manufacturers you don’t know are Canadian


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New York Fries got here from Brantford, Ont.

“Not going to lie, we’ve needed to perform a little little bit of pivoting,” mentioned Alyssa Berenstein, senior director of promoting at Vaughan, Ont.-headquartered New York Fries. “We’ve needed to perform a little little bit of answering inquiries to shoppers who could or could not perceive the truth that we’re wholeheartedly a Canadian model owned by a Canadian firm.”

That work is being taken on throughout a slew of Canadian corporations with U.S. names, who’ve discovered the tariff conflict U.S. President Donald Trump is waging is placing shopper information of their manufacturers’ possession and heritage to the check. Whereas they insist their monikers aren’t in want of adjusting as a result of they’ve been in a position to lower by any confusion and aren’t seeing their gross sales droop, they’re relishing any alternative they get to share the place their allegiances lie.

The Great American Backrub owner Nazir Lalani.
Photograph by The Canadian Press

At The Nice American Backrub’s two Toronto areas, patriotism comes within the type of indicators promoting that the enterprise is Canadian. “I considered … placing a giant crimson ribbon throughout American, however I didn’t assume the landlords would love that an excessive amount of” proprietor Nazir Lalani mentioned.

His therapeutic massage parlour enterprise began as a franchise of a U.S. firm about 25 years in the past however hasn’t had ties to the grasp franchisor for about 20 years. The franchisor has folded, however Lalani didn’t change the identify as a result of he wished to hold onto the model consciousness he constructed below identify. He not too long ago retitled the corporate’s web site The Backrub however insists that was a branding “experiment” that had nothing to do with Trump or buyer confusion and gained’t prolong to shops, even now that the U.S. has grow to be unpalatable.

“I’m reluctant as a result of … this man’s a yo-yo,” Lalani mentioned referencing Trump. “This complete factor might disappear in a month.”

By sticking with The Nice American Backrub identify for the bodily shops, Lalani estimates he’s saving hundreds. New, everlasting signage for shops would price him $10,000 and a swap would require new contracts and advertising and marketing supplies.

Clients don’t appear bothered by the identify both. In truth, gross sales have risen for the reason that Canadian indicators went up, Lalani mentioned.

Boston Pizza originated in Edmonton

Boston Pizza additionally hasn’t taken successful due to its American identify. “The vast majority of Canadians know that we’re Canadian, so it’s not as massive of a problem for us, and we haven’t seen a damaging impression on enterprise, fortunately” mentioned James Kawalecki, Boston Pizza’s vice-president of promoting. “However we completely do really feel for others (as a result of) that wasn’t all the time the case.”

The pizza chain was based in Edmonton in 1964 by Greek sailor Gus Agioritis, who wished to go to Boston however began a restaurant with town’s identify as an alternative. The chain’s historical past has grow to be extra well-known lately due to Dragon’s Den appearances by Jim Treliving, an RCMP officer who opened his first Boston Pizza franchise in 1968 and charted the corporate’s fashionable success.

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