After more than a year of high inflation, MTY Food Group Inc. plans to be careful when deciding on further price increases.

On Tuesday, the company behind Manchu Wok, Mucho Burrito and Mr. Sub, among others, announced second-quarter same-store sales climbed five percent year-over-year.

Meanwhile, revenue had nearly doubled in the last year, thanks to the acquisitions of BBQ Holdings, Wetzel's Pretzels and Sauce Pizza and Wine.

MTY CEO Eric Lefebvre told BNN Bloomberg his company is happy with the results, but has made it a point to tread carefully when it comes to future price hikes levied on customers.

“We need to make sure the value proposition works, so we need to match the experience with the higher prices,” he said. “It’s a challenge for our brands, there’s no question about that.”

During a conference call with investors earlier in the day, Lefebvre said restaurants have reached a “maturity” when it comes to prices.

“I think the desire and the capability and the acceptance of price increases has probably reached a peak now and we need to be extra careful on future price increases,” he said. “Not to say we can’t do price increases, but we need to be very mindful of the impact it’s going to have on our customers and the reaction they’re going to have.”

With many of MTY’s brands considered food court staples, Lefebvre said his company is still rebounding from the pandemic’s impact on mall traffic.

“Food courts is where we come from, so we can’t lose sight of that,” he said during the interview. “It’s only 15 per cent of our revenues, so obviously it’s not as big as it used to be, but 15 per cent is still a sizeable chunk.”

“Obviously, right now it’s a little bit more complicated and we don’t have a crystal ball to tell when people are going to come back, but it’s something we need to factor into our decisions.”