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MTY Buys Another Casual Dining Chain

MTY Food Group Inc. will acquire most of the assets of Casa Grecque, a chain of bring-your-own-wine restaurants founded 38 years ago by brothers Peter and Louis Berlemis.

Following the closing of the transaction, MTY will continue to run the Casa Grecque concept from its current headquarters in Laval, Quebec, under the leadership of Peter Mardakis.

Casa Grecque has 31 franchised restaurants in operation, all of which are located in Quebec, Canada. Systemwide, the restaurants generated more than $45 million in system sales in 2017, per a release announcing the deal. Assets acquired also include a central kitchen and a distribution center that service the Casa Grecque restaurants as well as some external customers.

The transaction comes with a price tag of $19.5 million plus the value of the inventory at closing, which is projected to be approximately $3 million, per a release announcing the transaction. The deal is expected to close by the end of the year and remains subject to conditions customary for a transaction of this nature.

The Casa Grecque deal follows a May announcement of MTY leadership changes and a focus on acquisitions. That announcment stated company founder Stanley Ma will step down from his role as CEO effective Nov. 2, 2018.

Prior to that, in February MTY acquired the assets of Timothy's World Coffee and Mmmuffins from Threecaf Brands, Canada, a subsidiary of Le Duff America.