We operate franchise restaurants and own the real estate beneath them.
A privately held operating company building durable, cash-generating assets across Alberta and Western Canada — two platforms, one balance sheet, permanent capital.
Lethbridge, Alberta · Est. 2024Multi-unit franchise operations, run by operators who are in the building.
Birchmont acquires, develops, and operates franchised restaurant locations under established national and regional brands. We are franchisee-operators, not passive investors: we hire the teams, hold the P&L, and answer for the guest experience in every unit we run. Growth is unit-by-unit and market-by-market, underwritten to cash flow rather than headline count.
Multi-unit development
Area development, new builds, conversions, and the acquisition of existing units.
People-first operations
Recruiting, training, and retaining general managers who can run a store without us.
Unit economics discipline
Weekly labour, food cost, and throughput reporting on every location we own.
We would rather own the ground than rent it.
Birchmont Real Estate acquires, develops, and holds commercial property — starting with the sites our own restaurants occupy and extending to retail, mixed-use, and income-producing assets across Western Canada. We underwrite for long-term hold, not for a flip.
Acquisition & ownership
Freestanding retail, small-format commercial, and mixed-use property in markets we already operate in. We buy assets we understand, in towns we know.
Development & site selection
Land assembly, entitlement, and ground-up development of pad sites and retail bays — including the sites our restaurant platform goes on to occupy.
Leasing & asset management
Tenant sourcing, lease negotiation, capital planning, and hands-on property management. Buildings are operated, not just owned.
Capital & structuring
Sale-leasebacks, joint ventures, and vendor-take-back structures. We are comfortable being the operator, the landlord, or both.
Operate the business. Own the building.
Most restaurant groups rent. Most property owners do not know how a kitchen runs at noon on a Friday. Birchmont does both — and each platform makes the other stronger.
Operations de-risk the real estate
We underwrite a site knowing exactly what volume it has to do to work, because we run the concept ourselves. That removes most of the guesswork from a pro forma — and it lets us move on a site faster than a buyer who still has to find a tenant.
Real estate de-risks the operations
Owning the property removes the single largest fixed-cost risk in a restaurant P&L: the landlord. No renewal surprises, no relocation, no rent escalation that quietly takes a good store and makes it marginal.
Two ways to compound
Restaurant operations generate cash. Property builds equity. Held together on one balance sheet over a long horizon, the combination compounds in a way neither platform does alone.
Why we buy the building.
Occupancy is a small share of a restaurant’s cost base and the only major line an operator cannot control. That asymmetry is the whole argument for owning the site.
Where a revenue dollar goes
Typical quick-service restaurant cost structure as a share of sales. Food and labour dominate the P&L, but both are managed daily. Occupancy is set by a lease signed years earlier.
View as table
| Line | Share of sales |
|---|---|
| Food & paper | 30% |
| Labour | 31% |
| Occupancy | 9% |
| Other operating | 18% |
| Operating margin | 12% |
Illustrative industry-typical structure for a quick-service restaurant, shown to explain the model. Not Birchmont Group operating results.
Occupancy cost over a twenty-year hold
Annual occupancy cost, indexed to 100 in year one. A lease escalates for as long as you hold it. Fixed-rate debt service on an owned site does not — and the asset is yours at the end of it.
View as table
| Year | Leased | Owned |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 100 | 105 |
| 5 | 113 | 105 |
| 10 | 130 | 105 |
| 15 | 151 | 105 |
| 20 | 175 | 105 |
| Cumulative | 2,687 | 2,100 |
Assumes 3% annual rent escalation on the leased site and fixed-rate debt service on the owned site at a 5% higher year-one cost. Illustrative model shown to explain the strategy. Not a forecast, and not Birchmont Group operating results.
What we are looking at right now.
We keep a live pipeline and move quickly on the right fit. If you are a franchisor, a broker, or an owner thinking about succession, this is the shape of what we buy.
Franchise Units
Existing franchised locations and area development rights in proven QSR and fast-casual systems. Single units, small portfolios, and succession situations where the operator wants out cleanly.
Commercial Property
Freestanding retail, pad sites, strip and mixed-use assets in Alberta and adjacent Western Canadian markets. Stabilised income or value-add with a clear path to lease-up.
Partnership Structures
Joint ventures with local operators, sale-leasebacks with owners who want to free up capital, and vendor financing where it lets a good deal close.
Conservative
by construction.
Birchmont Group is privately held and intends to stay that way. There is no fund clock, no exit mandate, and no pressure to deploy capital into a deal that does not work on its own merits.
We grow when the last unit is stable, the operating team is deep enough to absorb the next one, and the numbers hold under a conservative case. Every location and every building is underwritten as if we will own it for twenty years — because we intend to.
More about the company →Bring us a deal.
Franchisors evaluating operators, brokers with a listing, and owners thinking about succession — we sign NDAs quickly and give a straight answer fast. We reply within one business day.