Toronto restaurant chain Freshii to start selling food at Walmart

One of the most-successful fast-casual restaurant chains ever to come out of The 6ix is moving on up this spring with the help of a big box retail giant.

Freshii—the ubiquitous wrap, salad, soup, bowl, burrito, yogurt, juice and snack joint that serves a good chunk of the city lunch every day—is coming to Walmart, but not in a McDonald's type of way.

The Toronto-born restaurant brand is gearing up to start selling fresh prepared "grab and go" food items at Walmart Canada grocery stores, starting with 100 locations in Ontario.

This marks the first major partnership with a supermarket for Freshii Inc., which has been growing exponentially since its founding in 2005 as "Lettuce Eatery."

The company's system-wide sales grew by 25 per cent in 2018, according to a newly-released fiscal report, boasting a total of $171.7 million in revenue across its roughly 370 locations worldwide.

By the end of April, it plans to have "feel-good, made-daily food options" stocked at all 100 of the initial Walmart Canada stores (in the fresh food section) as well as on Walmart.ca.