Paris Baguette, the South Korean fast-casual bakery café chain, hopes to grow its U.S. footprint from 70 stores to 10% of its total store count by 2020.While its 3,500 stores dot the streets of South Korea, China, Singapore, Vietnam, and France, Paris Baguette only began franchising in the U.S. last year, a decade after entering…

NSF International has launched the first-ever compliance verification program to cover the hygienic quality of commercial foodservice equipment under European guidelines and legislation. Its HCV EU (HACCP Compliance Verification) program offers a risk-based approach to verify the design and cleanability aspects of products offered in the EU commercial foodservice/catering equipment market. In addition to enabling…

Specifi LLC, the U.S.-based provider of end-to-end design information and solutions supporting the foodservice equipment specification process, has agreed to purchase the business of Schematic Ltd, the Edinburgh, Scotland-based supplier of Building Information Modeling (BIM) software, content creation and repository services to the European foodservice equipment industry.  “The acquisition of Schematic’s business reflects our commitment…

Ali Group has promoted Filippo Berti to Chief Executive Officer, effective September 1. Berti will have responsibility for all of the Milan, Italy-based firm’s 77 brands and operating companies worldwide. He joined the Ali Group in May 2008 with the acquisition of Beverage-Air, where he held the role of president. He most recently served as CEO…

Sysco Corp. is acquiring U.K.-based foodservice distributor Brakes Group for $800 million, a move that sharply expands the Houston company’s overseas presence after regulators last year blocked its effort to buy US Foods, its chief domestic rival. Sysco CEO Bill DeLaney calls the transaction a means to further international deals; the broadliner currently earns 90%…

Cara Operations Ltd., Canada’s oldest and largest full-service restaurant company, has inked an agreement to acquire Groupe St-Hubert, the Laval, Quebec-based full-service operator and food manufacturer for $414 million. St-Hubert is Canada’s fourth-largest full-service operator. Its businesses include 80 full-service restaurants and 37 express locations. Nearly 90% are operated by franchisees and 92% of its…

Despite political and economic turmoil in many of the world’s major foodservice markets, sales and customer traffic rose, according to the latest data from The NPD Group’s CREST studies. Traffic rose more than 2% in Australia, China and Great Britain, and also was positive in Spain, Italy and the U.S. Traffic in France had been…

A slight slowdown in growth of the British economy, a somewhat more cautious consumer, and the uncertainties surrounding the referendum on the United Kingdom’s continued membership in the European Union are among the “stones in the road” impacting the foodservice market in the UK These factors and others led London-based foodservice research firm Horizons to forecast a…

Franke Coffee Systems’ new premium-class A600 Superautomatic Espresso Machine is one of the recipients of this year’s Kitchen Innovations Awards from the U.S.-based National Restaurant Association. It combines innovative FoamMaster technology with a patented brew unit and a breakthrough fully-automated clean-in-place system.  Additionally, the intuitive eight-inch touchscreen, with both image and video capability, allows the…

Liebherr refrigerators and freezers offer more than reliability, convenience, efficiency and cost-effectiveness: they offer high-quality components, optimized net volume, efficient cooling performance, reliable temperature maintenance, and exemplary ease-of-cleaning. Above all, Liebherr’s cold-storage line stands out by combining low energy consumption with maximum efficiency. Advanced control systems and high-performance components ensure optimum refrigeration and freezing performance.