TIL A&W was originally a subsidiary of its US parent company, but was then bought out by Canadians and separated/privatized!

The company was initially a subsidiary of the U.S.-based A&W Restaurants chain, with the subsidiary opening its first franchise in Winnipeg in 1956. In 1972, Unilever acquired A&W’s Canadian operations, leading to the subsidiary’s separation from the U.S.-based company. In 1995, a Canadian management group made up of A&W franchisees took ownership of the chain from Unilever.

The A&W chain in Canada remains privately owned and is headquartered in North Vancouver. As of 2022, A&W was Canada’s second-largest fast-food hamburger chain with 1,029 franchises, after McDonald’s.

~ the Wikipedia article has brackets and breaks in Lemmy links: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A%26W_(Canada)