TSX:AW.UN

    VANCOUVER, Nov. 9 /CNW/ - A&W Food Services of Canada Inc. announced the
opening of its newest freestanding restaurant in Hamilton, Ontario. This is
the third freestanding restaurant to open in Ontario this year, following
Cochrane and Tecumseh.
    The Hamilton restaurant, located on the corner of Upper James Street and
Hester Street, is the first freestanding A&W to be built in Hamilton in over
35 years. Consumer response has been overwhelming.
    The franchised restaurant is owned and operated by 4 local area
businessmen - Philip Leschuk, Jason Crowley, John Slowakiewicz and Joseph
Finnamore - and is their first A&W. They look forward to opening several more
in the Hamilton area in the coming years.
    "I was delighted to be able to attend the opening, as I wanted to
personally welcome Hamilton area customers back to A&W" said Graham Cooke,
Vice President, Franchise Development and Facilities. "But many of the
customers beat me to it....they wanted me to know how happy they were to have
A&W back in town. Hamilton is such an ideal market for us, with a very large
concentration of Canadians from the baby boom generation. Many of these
boomers grew up with A&W and still have a strong association with the brand
and our menu". Cooke went on to say that the key challenge ahead will be to
find more excellent sites for future A&W's in Hamilton and the surrounding
area. "We need as many high quality locations as we can find".
    A&W now operates in 131 locations in Ontario, over 40 of which are
freestanding restaurants built since 2001. The company plans to continue to
grow in Ontario, with new restaurants currently under construction in
Tillsonburg, Timmins, Oshawa, Napanee and Ottawa, plus a second freestanding
location in Kitchener. A similar pattern of growth is planned for 2008.

    A&W is 100% Canadian-owned and is one of the strongest brand names in the
Canadian foodservice industry, who last year celebrated its 50th Anniversary.
For the past five years, A&W has been recognized as one of Canada's 50 Best
Managed Companies, a national awards program sponsored by Deloitte, CIBC
Commercial Banking, National Post, and Queen's School of Business. Operating
coast-to-coast with over 675 locations, A&W restaurants feature famous
trade-marked menu items such as The Burger Family®, Chubby Chicken® and
A&W Root Beer®.