History
In 1883, Canada Railway News Co. was founded. Cara began as a steamship company on the Niagara River in Ontario. It 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 finally 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.
On February 26, 2004, Cara went private.
In 2008, Cara was in the middle of a controversy when 3 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.
Read more about this topic: Cara Operations
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