A Family Recipe for Growth: How Osmow’s Scaled Through Franchising and Tradition

In an exclusive interview with CanadianSME Small Business Magazine, Ben Osmow, CEO of Osmow’s, shares how family values, strong franchise partnerships, and a focus on quality helped grow a single Streetsville restaurant into a 250-location brand, with ambitions for further U.S. expansion.

Ben Osmow is the CEO of Osmow’s, the family-owned Canadian restaurant brand that has grown from a single Streetsville location into a North American business with 250 restaurants and the largest shawarma brand globally.

Restaurant leadership has been part of Ben’s life since childhood. He started working at the family’s original restaurant at just nine years old and grew up learning the business from the ground up. Today, he leads Osmow’s alongside his father and founder, Sam Osmow, and sister Bernadette Osmow, President.

Ben’s focus is on growth, franchising, business strategy and scaling the brand, with an emphasis on building the systems, partnerships and infrastructure required to take a proudly Canadian restaurant concept into new markets. He has played a central role in transforming Osmow’s from a family-run restaurant into a sophisticated franchise organization while maintaining the entrepreneurial mindset that helped create it.

What has driven Osmow’s growth from one Streetsville restaurant into a 250-location franchise brand?

In short, the need to provide for the family and the passion for food from back home. First We created a menu with real ingredients that people crave. While we have evolved to a franchise model, we pay close attention to our quality, and our small network of franchise partners, investing in them, our infrastructure and the brand. Lastly, our entrepreneurial spirit remains as part of our culture today, across every facet of the business.

Our growth has really come down to a few key things. First, our franchise model is built on making individual unit operators successful so they can continue to open more Osmow’s. We now have some franchise partners surpassing 20 restaurants within their family and partners.

We’re also very focused on quality and consistency, from what we produce in our commissary to the experience we deliver in our restaurants. We’ve intentionally built a close-knit network of franchise partners, which allows us to invest in them, support them and grow together. We’ve continued to invest in our people, infrastructure and our brand, making sure the business evolves as we grow while staying true to what made Osmow’s successful in the first place.

You started working in the original restaurant as a child. What lessons from those early days still guide your leadership today?

I started when I was 9, helping out as a cashier. Like many family businesses, Bernadette (President) and I both grew up in the restaurant. A lesson I keep today is what our dad taught us, “Don’t spend more time dwelling on todays worries than you do figuring out how to make sure tomorrow is better.”

I also learned the value of service – Every guest that came back became a friend and it was my goal to learn all of their names so that work became more fun than it did a choir. This is a value that we still preach today across all of our restaurants.

What has it been like scaling Osmow’s alongside your father, Sam, and your sister, Bernadette, while protecting the family values behind the brand?

From working shoulder to shoulder in our original Streetsville restaurant, to opening our 100th location, expanding into the U.S., and now celebrating our 250th restaurant, we’ve experienced every milestone together as a family. One moment that stands out was giving a keynote at a Canadian Franchise Association event together. Sharing our story made us appreciate just how far we’ve come, while recognizing that the values Sam instilled in us from the beginning remain at the heart of the business today: work hard, solve problems, and give back.

How has franchising helped Osmow’s grow while creating ownership opportunities for other entrepreneurs?

We have seen so many franchise partners family businesses be built within our family business, and it is a blessing to see some second-generation franchise partners as well. We value the inputs our partners bring and work to keep our relationships strong so we can win together.Our success is solely reliant on theirs and we remind ourselves and them of that every day.

As Osmow’s expands further across the United States, how do you introduce shawarma to new customers without losing the brand’s identity and roots?

Sampling, sampling, and sampling. The food is the real champion behind our brand and we just have to get it into peoples hands.

Shawarma is at the heart of Osmow’s, and we don’t want to change that to fit a new market. Instead, as the category leader, we focus on helping people understand and experience it in a way that feels approachable. We do that through great food, simple education and a strong brand experience. Our menu and in-restaurant experience helps to introduce customers to the flavours, ingredients and culture behind shawarma. At the same time, we’re careful not to lose the things that make Osmow’s uniquely Osmow’s like our roots in Streetsville pictured in every restaurant, our family history, our food, our sauces and the personality of the brand. As we enter new markets, we also listen. Every market is a little different, and understanding local customers helps us determine how we introduce the brand without compromising what we stand for. Ultimately, our goal isn’t to reinvent shawarma for the U.S. It’s to introduce more people to why we love it in the first place, and in a way that feels authentically Osmow’s.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this interview are those of the interviewee and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of CanadianSME Small Business Magazine. Our platform is dedicated to fostering dialogue and sharing insights that inspire and empower small and medium-sized businesses across Canada.