traded as tsx cao industry branded restaurants founded 1883 founder thomas patrick phelan and family headquarters vaughan ontario canada key people don robinson president & ceo ; m. bernard syron chairman revenue c 1.9 billion 2012 number of employees 40 000 divisions swiss chalet kelsey s neighbourhood bar & grill harvey s milestones grill and bar montana s cookhouse st hubert east side mario s new york fries subsidiaries prime restaurants website http www.cara.com cara operations ltd. is a canadian company that provides catering services to airlines and operates several restaurant chains including harvey s swiss chalet kelsey s milestones east side mario s montana s and st hubert . its headquarters are in vaughan ontario in the greater toronto area . 1 it used to be headquartered in mississauga ontario . 2 in november 2008 the company moved to its new headquarters in vaughan ontario near vaughan mills shopping centre . citation needed in 2002 sales for the whole company were c 1.9 billion . 88 % of the business comes from the restaurant services with the remaining 12 % deriving from airline catering . the name cara was derived from the first two letters of each of the words canada railway ; it is also an irish word meaning friend . contents 1 history 2 operations 2.1 catering services 2.2 restaurant operations 3 references 4 external links history edit it was chartered in 1883 as canada railway news company selling newspapers magazines and confectionaries at railway stations . the company s roots go back to the mid 1850s when thomas patrick phelan was selling fruit and newspapers to train passengers between hamilton and buffalo . 3 canada railway news soon moved into the food business catering to a boom in passenger rail traffic in canada . in the 1930s cara began offering catering services to the airlines . by 1951 it was serving about 1 500 meals a day . in 1961 the company changed its name to cara operations limited . cara was owned solely by the phelan family from its inception in 1883 until it went public in 1968 . at the time its primary business was catering to the transportation sector airline and rail meals but it did operate a few no name restaurants and coffee shops in various office towers and airport terminals in canada . total sales of all the various operations was c 30 million in 1968 . in 1986 cara provided services for vancouver s expo 86 . in 1999 cara purchased kelseys inc. from owner paul jeffery acquiring montanas kelseys and the outback canada . the rights to outback steakhouse were owned in canada by cara but it was sold back to outback in the usa because of high food costs . 4 on february 26 2004 cara went private . in 2008 cara was in the middle of a controversy when three employees were arrested at the montreal trudeau airport in relation to a drug distribution network that used the planes for which cara provided the catering . in 2013 cara came to an agreement with fairfax financial holdings ltd. to make prime restaurants a wholly owned subsidiary of cara . 5 this added restaurants such as casey s east side mario s bier markt and prime pubs to its operations . after the cbc investigated cara modified an outfit practice that insisted female servers at their bier markt locations don immodest dresses on the job . the work outfit practice came into effect on october 5 2015 and applied to employees at locations in ontario and quebec . under the updated practice the previous gender neutral outfit black pants and golf shirt was replaced . 6 on august 31 2015 cara announced it will be acquiring new york fries . south st. burger would not be part of the acquisition . 7 on march 31 2016 cara operations announced that it will acquire st hubert in the summer of 2016 for cad 537 million . 8 9 operations edit cara employs more than 38 000 people . catering services edit cara servicing a czech airlines flight in montreal in february 2008 . on november 8 2010 10 gate gourmet gategroup acquired substantially all of the business assets of cara airline solutions canada s premier airline catering and logistics provider from cara operations limited . before november 8 2010 cara controlled 85 % of the canadian airline market providing meals for more than 60 of the world s major airlines including klm american airlines british airways and air canada . meals were prepared at cara s nine flight kitchens located across canada . summit food service distributors inc. now a division of colabor lp is canada s largest canadian owned broadline distributor to the foodservice industry . cara airport services division pearson international airport toronto flight kitchen vancouver international airport 40 % market share citation needed restaurant operations edit cara air terminal restaurant division sold to gategroup in 2010 harvey s swiss chalet kelsey s neighbourhood bar & grill milestones grill and bar montana s bbq & bar east side mario s prime pubs bier markt landing group casey s grill bar new york fries 11 st hubert references edit 1 footer cara contact 01.gif . cara operations . retrieved on september 13 2011 . address 199 four valley drive vaughan on l4k 0b8 contact information . cara operations . april 5 2004 . retrieved on september 13 2011 . head office 6303 airport road mississauga ontario canada l4v 1r8 http www.theglobeandmail.com report on business the fight for caras soul article1167819 page all cara operations limited shaw hollie 31 october 2013 . cara fairfax s prime restaurants to merge . http www.cbc.ca news health cara backtracks on skimpy uniform 1.3294640 http www.newyorkfries.com news cara operations limited announces purchase of new york fries http www.thestar.com business 2016 03 31 swiss chalet owner cara buying st hubert for 537m.html cara new release march 31 2016 nov. 8 2010 gategroup completes acquisition of cara airline solutions new york fries . new york fries . retrieved 2016 01 17 . external links edit york region ontario portal toronto portal companies portal food portal official website coordinates 43 41 27 n 79 37 26 w 43.690824 n 79.623928 w 43.690824 ; 79.623928 v t e cara operations restaurants bier market casey s east side mario s harvey s swiss chalet kelsey s neighbourhood bar & grill prime pubs milestones grill and bar montana s cookhouse new york fries st hubert other cara air terminal restaurant division sold to gategroup in 2010 retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title cara operations & oldid 743470894 categories cara operationsfood and drink companies of canadacompanies listed on the toronto stock exchangecompanies based in mississaugacompanies established in 1883aircraft ground handling companiesfoodservice companieshidden categories all articles with unsourced statementsarticles with unsourced statements from september 2011articles with unsourced statements from february 2007coordinates not on wikidata navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages fran ais edit links this page was last modified on 9 october 2016 at 20 22 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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