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New York Fries came from Brantford, Ont.
“Not going to lie, we’ve had to do a little bit of pivoting,” said Alyssa Berenstein, senior director of marketing at Vaughan, Ont.-headquartered New York Fries. “We’ve had to do a little bit of answering questions to consumers who may or may not understand the fact that we are wholeheartedly a Canadian brand owned by a Canadian company.”
That work is being taken on across a slew of Canadian companies with U.S. names, who have found the tariff war U.S. President Donald Trump is waging is putting consumer knowledge of their brands’ ownership and heritage to the test. While they insist their monikers aren’t in need of changing because they’ve been able to cut through any confusion and aren’t seeing their sales slump, they’re relishing any opportunity they get to share where their allegiances lie.
At The Great American Backrub’s two Toronto locations, patriotism comes in the form of signs advertising that the business is Canadian. “I thought about … putting a big red ribbon across American, but I didn’t think the landlords would like that too much” owner Nazir Lalani said.
His massage parlour business started as a franchise of a U.S. company about 25 years ago but hasn’t had ties to the master franchisor for about 20 years. The franchisor has folded, but Lalani didn’t change the name because he wanted to hang onto the brand awareness he built under name. He recently retitled the company’s website The Backrub but insists that was a branding “experiment” that had nothing to do with Trump or customer confusion and won’t extend to stores, even now that the U.S. has become unpalatable.
“I’m reluctant because … this guy’s a yo-yo,” Lalani said referencing Trump. “This whole thing could disappear in a month.”
By sticking with The Great American Backrub name for the physical stores, Lalani estimates he’s saving thousands. New, permanent signage for stores would cost him $10,000 and a switch would require new contracts and marketing materials.
Customers don’t seem bothered by the name either. In fact, sales have risen since the Canadian signs went up, Lalani said.
Boston Pizza originated in Edmonton
Boston Pizza also hasn’t taken a hit because of its American name. “The majority of Canadians know that we are Canadian, so it’s not as big of an issue for us, and we haven’t seen a negative impact on business, luckily” said James Kawalecki, Boston Pizza’s vice-president of marketing. “But we absolutely do feel for others (because) that wasn’t always the case.”
The pizza chain was founded in Edmonton in 1964 by Greek sailor Gus Agioritis, who wanted to visit Boston but started a restaurant with the city’s name instead. The chain’s history has become more well-known in recent years because of Dragon’s Den appearances by Jim Treliving, an RCMP officer who opened his first Boston Pizza franchise in 1968 and charted the company’s modern success.
