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Heritage

Priszm Income Fund (KFC / Pizza Hut / Taco Bell Canada)

Closed CCAA 2011; stores sold by 2012

Quick-service restaurant operator · Vaughan (head office); seven provinces · Canada-wide

For most of a decade, more than half of Canada's KFC outlets — 428 restaurants, nine thousand employees, roughly $450 million in yearly revenue — answered to Priszm Income Fund, chaired by John Bitove Jr. The fund filed for creditor protection in March 2011 and its restaurants were sold on; Bitove's stated goal at the end was to maximise proceeds and minimise the pain. Even the empire's setbacks were on a national scale.

Details

Founded
2003 (income fund)
People
John Bitove Jr., chairman

Sources (2)

  1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priszm
  2. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/bitove-quits-as-priszm-goes-into-protection/article574808/

  • Patrician Grill

    Diner · Toronto (King St E)

    Closed 9 May 2026

    For seventy years the Papas family kept the grill on at 219 King East — Louie, newly arrived from Greek Macedonia in 1953, then his son Terry, serving all-day b...

    Address: 219 King Street East, Toronto

    Macedonian connection: Founded by Louie Papas, a Greek-Macedonian immigrant, and run by his family for seventy years.

    Sources: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/patrician-grill-closing-after-70-years-9.7167062

  • Scott's REIT / KEYreit

    Real estate investment trust · Toronto

    Closed sold 2013

    The property side of the fried-chicken empire: Scott's REIT, later KEYreit, held the land and buildings beneath hundreds of quick-service restaurants with John...

    Macedonian connection: The Bitove-chaired REIT that held the real estate under hundreds of quick-service restaurants.

    Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bitove

  • Slave Petroff and Company

    Steamship agency, banking & labour bureau · Toronto (King St E district)

    Before there were restaurants there was the agency: Slave Petroff and Company sold steamship passages, moved remittances to the villages and ran a labour bureau...

    Macedonian connection: The pre-First-World-War agency that sold the tickets, wired the money and found the jobs for Toronto's first Macedonian colony.

    Sources: https://torontomanyfaces.wixsite.com/ebook/47-the-macedonian-community

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