The UAE’s Marka PJSC is opening Bahrain’s first Reem Al Bawadi Restaurant and Café, the latest in a series of expansions for the restaurant across the Gulf Coast Countries. The franchise in Bahrain marks the 11th branch of the chain, which offers traditional Middle East cuisine and cocktails, throughout the region and is the fifth…

Boojum Mexican Burrito Bar has opened its third—and largest restaurant to date—in Belfast, Northern Ireland, while also releasing plans for further expansion in the Republic of Ireland. The new 95-seat Belfast outlet is the first of four stores in the pipeline for Belfast, Dublin, and a city yet to be named. There are now seven…

Famous Brands, which owns two dozen quick-service and casual-dining brands including Steers and Wimpy, has acquired Gourmet Burger Kitchen for UK£120m. The South African-based company announced an agreement in September to buy 97% of GBK from YellowWood Group and the remaining 3% from management. GBK now comprises 75 restaurants across the UK. It was founded…

Three months after acquiring Angelo Po, Marmon has added a second Italy-based foodservice equipment manufacturer. The assets of Dominioni Punto & Pasta S.r.l., a leading Italian supplier of commercial pasta equipment, have been purchased by Marmon Pasta Solutions S.r.l. Terms were not disclosed. Founded in 1968 by Pietro Dominioni, the family-run business designs and produces…

American equipment manufacturer Manitowoc Foodservice has announced a number of leadership shifts in its overseas business executive team. Phil Dei Dolori has been promoted to Senior V.P. and General Manager EMEA and APAC, and assumes oversight for the APAC region in addition to his current EMEA responsibilities. Dei Dolori has been with Manitowoc Foodservice for nine years…

Julian Edwards, director of the British consulting firm GY5 Ltd., is the new chairman of the Foodservice Consultants Society International-UK & Ireland. The association’s U.K. & Ireland branch disbanded in December 2015 following a dispute with the larger FCSI EAME operations, but the U.K. division had never been dissolved legally and continued to exist as…

Now that Collins Foods is the largest KFC franchisee in Australia, the Brisbane, Queensland, company is focused on expanding its quick-service restaurant operations across the country. Collins earned top franchisee title after its acquisition of 13 KFC stores, a deal which raised it to a total of 191 KFC locations across Australia. Chairman Robert Kaye…

Rational has marked the 40th anniversary of its invention of the combi oven by debuting the new, compact SelfCookingCenter XS Model 6 2/3. This ultra slim unit opens the door to new business opportunities for coffee bars, cafés, convenience stores or smaller restaurants. Efficient LevelControl allows simultaneous cooking of various, easily preprogrammed foods (capacity is…

Worries about dirt, scale and lime are set aside when you use the right filtration. A new family of Everpure SI Systems from Pentair Foodservice provides 0.5 micron sediment filtration to deliver premium, high-quality water for ice applications. The SI System, available in 4SI Single and PF Single configurations and 7SI Single, Twin, Triple and Quad…

The German company won a Kitchen Innovations award this year in the US for raising the bar on water conservation with its GreenEye-Technology integrated system for flight-type warewashers. A light coaching system indicates which conveyor belt should be filled for maximum water efficiency, sensors detect the location of the dishware, and these lanes are then…