By Ben Coley
MTY Food Group, the owner of Papa Murphy’s, Wetzel’s Pretzels, Cold Stone Creamery and dozens of other concepts, could be up for sale.
The Montreal-based company confirmed in a news release that it’s partnering with a financial advisor to evaluate strategic alternatives.
“The Company is exploring a range of such alternatives including, but not limited to, a sale of all or part of the company as well as continuing to execute its current business plan,” MTY said in a statement. “There can be no assurance that any transaction will occur, and the Company does not intend to make any additional comments unless further disclosure is appropriate or required by law.”
The group owns and franchises over 80 concepts and 7,000 locations across quick service, fast casual and casual dining. As of Q3, 58 percent of its footprint was in the U.S., followed by 35 percent in Canada, and 7 percent elsewhere in the world.
Much of MTY’s attention has been spent on revitalizing Papa Murphy’s. CEO Eric Lefebvre said the restaurant group has partnered with franchisees to “close a certain number of underperforming locations over the last year.” The executive added that this move will allow the pizza brand to focus its attention on stores where it has the most success. He used a recent opening in Deer Park, Washington, as an example; the location currently earns sales more than twice the system average.
Additionally, MTY plans to change Papa Murphy’s loyalty program from surprise-and-delight to a rewards-based system, and it will draw attention to the relaunch with “aggressive incentives.” Other initiatives include more collaborations like it had with Mike’s Hot Honey, menu optimization, SKU rationalization and a new lineup of innovative pizzas in 2026.
“It’s a very competitive space with the pizza,” Lefebvre said during MTY’s Q3 earnings call. “You look at our competitors and they all admitted to over-investing in marketing in the last few quarters, some of them $30 million, $40 million. So that’s something we can afford to do. So we need to compete differently. In our case, I mean, the space is competitive. We remain positive on the brand. We have a lot of new things that are coming also for next year that we can’t necessarily announce now. But pretty pumped about what we’re doing with the brand, and it’s looking really good.”
Lefebvre indicated earlier this year that MTY was “aggressively pursuing acquisitions.”
MTY’s most recent purchases came in 2022, when it completed the acquisition of Wetzel’s Pretzels for $207 million, and bought 13-unit fast casual Sauce Pizza & Wine. Before that, the group purchased South Street Burger for $5.1 million in March 2019, Papa Murphy’s for $190 million in April 2019, and a majority stake in breakfast concept Allô! Mon Coco in July 2019.
A version of this story first appeared on the website of QSR magazine, sister publication to PMQ Pizza. Ben Coley is QSR’s editor.
