ICONIC CANADIAN COMPANIES - Part 3

MANDARIN Restaurant

Mandarin Restaurants is a chain of all-you-can-eat Chinese-Canadian buffets found in the Canadian province of Ontario. Mandarin Restaurants was founded in 1979 by James Chiu, George Chiu, Diana Chiu and K.C. Chang of Taiwan. There are currently 21 locations in Ontario. The restaurants offer à la carte, take-out and delivery items such as chow mein, noodle dishes, stir fry, and prime rib, as well as a salad bar, grill counter, sushi table, and ice cream bar desserts. The first restaurant was a small à-la-carte restaurant in Brampton, Ontario. The buffet concept was introduced in 1987 with the opening of their first franchise location in Missisauga. The headquarters, in Brampton, includes a corporate restaurant, a banquet facility, a warehouse, and the corporate head office.

On July 1, 2009, Mandarin had a day-long free buffet to any Canadian Citizen as part of their 30th anniversary celebration and to commemorate Canada Day. They had done so on several previous Canada Days as well. The requirement is that the patron must have proof of Canadian citizenship. Due to the large turnout in each of the 21 locations, police were hired to control crowds, with some locations having excessively long lineups that some patrons had to be turned away. As many as 30,000 spring rolls were served during the event in all locations. In addition, due to the high costs of offering free meals in one day, Chiu stated that this event would occur once every approximately five years.

See more pics of the Mandarin @ MFS-Snapshots





PRO OIL CHANGE

PRO OIL CHANGE is a Canadian owned and operated company that has been around since 1985. Their first store was launched in Mississauga, Ontario, and since then they have steadily moved to provide service to growing markets through out the province. Retail franchise organizations started in 1996.

The PRO OIL CHANGE team specializes in providing quick, professional, convenient and value priced warranty approved services for all makes and models of vehicles.

At all PRO OIL CHANGE locations you can relax and enjoy coffee, hot chocolate, tea, or spring water, while technicians busily get you back on the road.

The PRO OIL CHANGE Group takes pride in their community participation. All their locations will continue to be involved in the sponsorship of multiple local sports teams, charities and schools in their respective trading areas.

The PRO OIL CHANGE promise to each and every customer:

• No appointment required
• Fast and convenient service
• Trained and certified technicians
• Preventative maintenance services performed and recommended
• Complete Warranty approval on all services
• Top quality parts and fluids specified by vehicle manufacturers
• Fair value pricing on both parts and services

In 2001 the company partnered with Valvoline, the second largest lubricant company in North America. Valvoline have made a tremendous difference in the way PRO OIL CHANGE has operated their stores in Canada. Valvoline's resources and vast experience have been an invaluable resource to PRO OIL CHANGE as their company grows.









DOLLARAMA

Dollarama is a chain of 721 dollar stores across Canada. The company is headquartered in Montreal and, since 2009, is Canada's largest retailer of items for three dollars or less.  The first Dollarama store was created at the shopping centre "Les promenades du St-Laurent" in Matane. Dollarama now has stores in every province of Canada, with Ontario having the most stores.

Virtually all the Dollarama stores are located where there once were BiWay stores, a defunct chain of Canadian discount retail operations intended to compete with retailers such as Zellers, Kmart and Wal-Mart, which closed after a series of dubious financial transactions involving a new owner of the parent operation.

The majority of items are priced at $1.00 or less although in early 2009 Dollarama also introduced items priced up to $2.00. Due to the positive response from consumers to the multi-price point strategy, the store began to introduce items at $2.50 and $3.00 in August of 2012. All Dollarama stores now accept Interac debit payments

$1.25, $1.50, and $2.00 price level increase allowed the store to acquire products from a greater variety of sources, including closeout sales.

Dollarama has pioneered by sourcing customized products from manufacturers, evidenced by the numerous in-store items which have Dollarama's name printed on the product labels. In mid-2009 they joined other retail chains in rolling out their own store brand, "D". Unlike most dollar/discount stores, it sources products directly from manufacturers, rather than local distributors.

Lawrence Rossy was the head of the parent company of Dollarama, S. Rossy Inc. which used to operate a Rossy discount department store chain. He founded the privately held chain in 1992 and created a profitable business that became very successful. In November 2004, 80 percent of the chain was sold for $850 million US, to a private equity fund, Bain Capital, of Boston, Massachusetts.

Dollarama mainly sells soft drink products from Coca-Cola Ltd. and Cott. Some Dollarama stores have more than 20,000 square feet of space, particularly in Montreal's Pierrefonds-Roxboro borough on Des Sources Blvd. at Harwood Blvd. in Vaudreuil-Dorion.


Look at some of the things you can get for a buck or two!