Article content continued

Foreign brands are likely attracted to the country and Toronto because of the large population, international reputation and close proximity to the U.S., said food industry expert Robert Carter, who expects other large companies will watch Chick-fil-A’s expansion to guide whether they should head to Canada too.

“Toronto is considered one of the more multicultural cities in North America, if not the world, so it is a great platform for brands expanding international to test out the Canadian market and then start to fine-tune some of the differences from the U.S. business model,” said Carter.

“Chick-fil-A is a very beloved brand down in the U.S. with strong consumer loyalty and I think some of that brands’s awareness will translate for Canadians as well… When you look at loyalty, it is almost on par with a brand like Tim Hortons in Canada.”

However, Chick-fil-A is unlike most of the homegrown fast-food brands or foreign ones that have come to Canada because it’s known for its religious and conservative values.

The company is owned by the Cathy family, a billionaire evangelical Southern Baptist clan, which attracted plenty of attention in 2012, when its president Dan Cathy said he believes in the “the biblical definition of the family unit” and said those who “have the audacity to define what marriage is about” were “inviting God’s judgment on our nation”.

When the Supreme Court chose to support same-sex marriages in the U.S. a year later, Cathy posted on Twitter that the “founding fathers would be ashamed of our generation” and pronounced it a “sad day for our nation.”