A&W Food Services of Canada announced today that the company opened 20 new restaurants in 2008. This compares with 16 opened the previous year and brings the number of operating A&W's in Canada to 695.

For the past several years, Ontario has been a key focus for A&W, which is 100 percent Canadian-owned. The nine restaurants opened in Ontario last year bring the company's total presence in the market to 140 restaurants.

"We have just completed a major new strategy focused on franchise sales, which we will begin to implement in 2009," says Graham Cooke, A&W's vice president of New Restaurant Expansion. "For the first time in our 52-year history, we will begin to offer multi-site area development opportunities in Ontario, Quebec, and certain areas in Atlantic Canada."