Just after our last FER Fortnightly deadline, Chipotle Mexican Grill unveiled additional details for its new restaurant concept slated to open this summer. We’d already reported most of the news, but now we have the location of the chain’s new Asian concept: ShopHouse Southeast Asian Kitchen will open its doors this summer in Washington, D.C.The…

The launch of a new series of operator awards by the International Foodservice Manufacturers Association has brought honors to four chains. The inaugural winners were honored in Orlando, Fla., during IFMA’s annual Chain Operators Exchange conference held Feb. 27 to March 2. The COEX awards, designed to recognize stand-out innovations among chain operations, went to…

The Middleby Corp., which has acquired 15 companies over the past five years, keeps getting bigger. On April 12, the company announced its acquisition of Beech Ovens Pty. Ltd., a Brisbane, Australia-based manufacturer of stone hearth, tandoor and rotisserie ovens with approximately $10 million in annual sales. In a statement, Selim Bassoul, Middleby chairman and…

KFC is already the dominant player in India’s quick-serve market, and it’s getting bigger elsewhere as well. The chain’s Louisville, Ky., parent Yum! Brands opened its 400th franchise store in Indonesia on April 18. PT Fastfood Indonesia is the chain’s franchise partner for the new store in Jakarta. Yum! Restaurants International is the leading restaurant…

The 2011 Women’s Foodservice Forum Annual Leadership Development Conference in Orlando, Fla., April 10-13, brought together more than 2,000 executives to celebrate leadership and to push further the ideals of gender equality and diversity. During the four-day conference, the WFF announced the incoming 2011-12 executive committee and board of directors. The executive committee includes: •  …

“More optimistic” is the way Prime Advantage, the Chicago-based buying organization, described the results of its third annual Group CFO Survey, released last month. The group includes a significant number of foodservice equipment and supplies manufacturers. Of the chief financial officers surveyed, 74% said they are more optimistic about the economy, up from 67% in…

The Bureau of Labor Statistics had a bit of good news on the commodity-price front during March. After six straight months of run-ups, food prices at the wholesale level fell slightly in March. Combined wholesale food prices, as reported by the National Restaurant Association, were off 0.1% while so-called “finished foods” prices fell 0.2%, said…

States’ tax revenues rose significantly during the latter part of 2010, continuing a trend toward gradual fiscal recovery, according to the Rockefeller Institute of Government’s latest State Revenue Report. But local tax revenues, highly dependent on property taxes, moved in the opposite direction in the fourth quarter last year, the Albany, N.Y., organization reported. Publicly…

Always on the lookout for positive economic signs to offset the negatives, two upbeat reports came across our desk last week. The National Restaurant Association, analyzing recent employment data from the state perspective, reported on its TrendMapper research website that 34 states saw their jobless rates decline in March–“one of the most broad-based improvements since…

Budget watch: Despite concerns that budget wrangling in Washington would lead to cuts in food-safety programs, it appears that most funding for the Food Safety Modernization Act signed into law in January is secure. The Senate Appropriations summary says the funding level for the U.S. Food & Drug Administration takes into account the government’s distinct…