Kahala Brands
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| Subsidiary | |
| Industry | Restaurant |
| Headquarters | Scottsdale, Arizona, United States |
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Area served
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Global |
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Key people
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| Parent |
MTY Food Group (2016–present) |
| Website | www |
Kahala Brands is a wholly owned subsidiary of Canada-based MTY Food Group Inc. of Montreal, Quebec. Based in Scottsdale, Arizona, Kahala is one of North America's largest holding company of franchise fast food restaurant companies. In May 2016, the publicly traded Canadian MTY Food Group announced a friendly takeover deal with the Kahala Brands. MTY agreed to pay about US $300 million to acquire Kahala. The two companies generated near $2 billion in revenues in the previous year. Jeff Smit was chosen to lead the US operations of MTY.
Surf City Squeeze was started in the early 1980s by Kevin Blackwell and his wife Kathi. Later, in 1998/1999, Sports Group International, Inc. (a company that was originally formed to distributed Spaulding-branded sports drinks) merged with Surf City Squeeze with Surf City Squeeze's management taking over full control of the company. Also in 1999, Sports Group International purchased Frullati Cafe & Bakery Chain, bringing the total number of its franchised locations to 200.
In 2001, Kevin Blackwell changed the name of his company from Sports Group International to Kahala Corp. after terminating an agreement with Spaulding. Also in 2000, Kahala Corp. then developed the Rollerz brand.
From 2002 to 2006, Kahala Corp. purchased Ranch One Grilled Chicken, Samarai Sam's Teriyaki Grill, Taco Time,Great Steak, Johnnie's New York Pizzeria, and Blimpie. Kahala also acquired the license to Wafflo.
In 2007, Kahala Corp and Cold Stone Creamery agreed to merge creating a combined company holding 13 diversified brands. The combined company generated more than $1.1 billion in system wide sales in partnership with 3,000-plus franchisees and more than 4,600 retail locations. As a result of the merger, Kahala's CEO Kevin Blackwell and Cold Stone Creamery's CEO and chairman Doug Ducey were respectively appoint chairman and CEO of the new combined company, Kahala-Cold Stone. Ducey left a few months later to join tech start-up iMemories after being forced out by Blackwell.
In July 2007, Kahala-Cold Stone acquired Cereality Cereal Bar & Cafe.
In 2012, Kahala signed a franchising deal with Phoenix-based America’s Taco Shop.
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Wikipedia