Pizza Shops for Sale in Ontario - Page 3

A pizza shop for sale is a food business sold as a going concern, and the shops on the market range from independent pizzerias to franchised locations in a plaza or a food court. The sale covers the equipment, the trading name or the franchise rights, the staff and the order volume, together with an assignment of the lease, because the premises are almost always rented rather than owned. Two documents decide most of these deals: the lease that lets you keep trading from that address, and, where the shop carries a brand, the franchise agreement that lets you use it.

Where the shop is franchised, read the franchise agreement as closely as the lease. Ask for the remaining term, the transfer fee, the royalty and advertising fund contributions, and any refresh or renovation the franchisor can require as a condition of approving you. Buying an existing location normally means signing a fresh franchise agreement rather than inheriting the seller's, so ask for the agreement you will be bound by instead of the one in force today, and check whether the territory it grants is exclusive.

Approval is the franchisor's to give, and it usually follows an interview and a training course you pay for. In the provinces that have franchise legislation, including Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia, you must be given a disclosure document at least 14 days before you sign anything or pay a deposit. Use those days rather than waiving them: the disclosure is where the fees, the supply obligations, the renovation commitments and the franchisor's own litigation history are set out, and a franchise lawyer reading it with you costs less than the agreement's first surprise.

The oven decides the rest of the kitchen. Establish its type and age, whether it is owned outright or on a lease, and whether its hood and fire suppression are current and certified, because replacing a deck or conveyor oven together with its venting is one of the larger costs this trade carries. Ask what else runs off the same gas and electrical supply, and ask whether the dough mixers, the walk-in cooler and the point-of-sale system are owned or financed, since anything still secured has to be paid out or assumed at closing.

Then look hard at how the orders arrive. Confirm which delivery platforms the shop sells through and what each charges on an order, whether the phone number, the web domain and the platform storefronts with their accumulated reviews transfer with the business, and whether drivers are employees or contractors with vehicle insurance that covers commercial delivery. A shop whose orders come mostly through its own door and its own phone is a different purchase from one whose orders come through accounts you may not be able to take over.

The listings on this page are MLS® business listings whose descriptions identify the business as a pizzeria, pizza shop, pizza store or pizza franchise and whose feed business category is consistent with a restaurant or food service operation, refreshed daily. Matching on the description means a shop whose listing describes it only in general terms will not appear here, so this page does not claim to show every pizza shop for sale. Check each listing for whether the premises are leased and whether a franchise is involved. This overview is general information, not legal, financial, or tax advice.

A business listed for sale is a going concern rather than a property. What changes hands is usually the equipment, the stock on hand, the trading name and customer goodwill, the staff who stay on, and the balance of the lease on the premises. The premises themselves are more often rented from a landlord than owned by the seller, so most of these sales are an asset purchase plus an assignment of that lease.

Where the seller does own the land and the building, the real estate is priced separately from the business and can be bought outright or leased back. Each listing states which of the two it is, so read that before you compare one asking price against another.

Three things decide whether a business can keep trading the day after it changes hands: the licence or registration the operator holds rather than the premises, the landlord's written consent to assign the lease, and a registry search showing which equipment is owned outright and which is still financed. Settle all three before you remove conditions.