Since getting into the restaurant business in Prince Edward Island, Hamid Sanayie has spent the past few years developing his Fry Factory operation in Charlottetown the West Royalty Industrial Park. They make machines that can produce french fries quicker than the traditional way.

An entrepreneur in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island has modified an automated restaurant french fry cutter to the North American market. The Iranian born Hamid Sanayie man moved to Prince Edward Island in August 2007 after living in the United Kingdom for the past 21 years. He was looking for a quiet and safe place to raise his children, but Sanayie also had quite an eye for business. Armed with experience in the United Kingdom, he got into the restaurant business on the Island. He previously owned Brits Fish & Chips in Charlottetown and still has Water Street Fish & Chips in the Charlottetown city and Brits in Cavendish. But one thing constantly surprised him. Hamid Sanayie:  

So, he went looking for a fry cutter. In fact, he looked all over North America, but found nothing. He started up a new company called Fry Factory in the West Royalty Industrial Park (Charlottetown, PEI) in hopes of changing that. Hamid Sanayie:  

Sanayie decided to buy one from the U.K. and bring it over. Problem was, the machine that restaurants were using in the U.K. weren’t designed for potatoes in P.E.I. Hamid Sanayie:  

Automatic French Fry cutter (Restaurant use)

That meant modifications to the machine had to be made – bigger motor, bigger rotor and different certification due to the difference in voltage the machines use. Hamid Sanayie:  

What they’ve been left with is a machine that turns potatoes into french fries. Instead of pressing potato after potato through a manual cutter, the operator of the Fry Factory machine simply loads piles of potatoes into the top and then sees the machine spin out a shower of fries. Hamid Sanayie:  

Sanayie’s machine can produce a 50-pound bag of french fries in one minute. He said it’s not all about speeding up the process. Doing it manually means constantly hauling down on a lever. Hamid Sanayie:  

So far, they’ve sold 119 machines in three years – about 65 per cent in Canada and 35 per cent in the United States. He notes as the only manufacturer of these fry cutters in North America, the company has room to expand. Hamid Sanayie:  

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