Affordable Restaurant Service and Equipment, a Salt Lake City-based service franchise, has sold franchises in 13 territories. Pete Fella, who has more than 20 years’ experience with foodservice equipment, purchased three Affordable franchises in Utah with his partner Hugh Johns. John Lockett and Charlie Short bought 10 Affordable franchise territories spanning three states in the…

As we report above, we released our latest E&S market forecast at the annual President’s Preview forecast meeting August 9. For a whole host of reasons, we expect 2017 to witness another year of decent sales growth at the manufacturers’ level, 4.1% nominal and 1.8% real. But be aware this is a slowing trend from…

The fast-growing quick-service chicken chain has signed a development deal to expand outside its core markets in the Carolinas. Charlotte, N.C.-based Bojangles’ says Gautier, Miss.-based Angle Inc. would develop multiple units in southern Alabama and southeast Mississippi; the chain currently has 32 restaurants in Alabama.

It’s a unique brand, calling itself the nation’s only southern-inspired, fast-casual chicken salad restaurant concept. Since its founding in 2008, the Auburn, Ala., chain has grown to 57 locations across the Southeast. In July, Georgia welcomed its 11th

Paul Westra, a well-known restaurant market analyst for Chicago-based Stifel, set off quite a kerfuffle last week.  He downgraded 11 leading restaurant company stocks, noting a broad-based slowing of same-store sales since the first of the year, according to a survey his firm conducts. He said the trend “reflects the start of a U.S. restaurant…

Softer sales and a dampened outlook among operators led to a decline for the second consecutive month in the National Restaurant Association’s Restaurant Performance Index, but even as restaurant performance and operators’ expectation continued to fall, the overall numbers still attest to expansion in the industry. The RPI stood at 100.3 in June, down 0.3…

Consumers’ confidence remains at a fairly high level, but they were a bit less optimistic in July than a month or year ago, according to separate surveys from the University of Michigan’s Surveys of Consumers and the Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Survey. According to the UM Surveys, the recent decline is attributed to rising concerns,…

Scotsman Ice Systems has appointed Nick Mirkovich as its new Vice President-Sales and Marketing. Mirkovich, based in the company’s corporate headquarters in Vernon Hills, Ill., will be responsible for managing sales through distribution, key chain and direct accounts throughout the Americas. He joins Scotsman after nearly 15 years working in sales, marketing, product management and…

Now that it’s found success with its next-generation “Experience of the Future” restaurant in parts of Europe, Canada, and Australia, McDonald’s plans to further expand the program in the United States. The company said in its second-quarter earnings conference call that more than half of its restaurants in Canada have been fully converted to the…

Chipotle Mexican Grill will enter the burger market this fall with a limited-menu concept called Tasty Made. The first location will open this fall in Lancaster, Ohio. The menu will include burgers, fries, and shakes. The Denver chain, still regaining its sales footing following E. coli outbreaks that affected its primary brand restaurants in 14…