The 1,030-unit Buffalo Wild Wings chain is dipping into the taco segment, making a majority investment in Rusty Taco, a privately held, fast-casual chain. Dallas-based Rusty Taco specializes in street-style, fresh-made tacos at two company-owned stores and seven franchised locations in Dallas, Denver and Minneapolis/St. Paul. Minneapolis-based Buffalo Wild Wings also has a minority investment…
The Society for Hospitality and Foodservice Management sums up its 35 years as three decades, five years and hundreds of thousands of volunteer hours influencing and defining corporate foodservice. The society will mark its anniversary at its National Conference, Nov. 4-6, at the Mohegan Sun Hotel & Spa in Uncasville, Conn. The milestone conference, themed…
S. Truett Cathy, the founder of the privately held Chick-fil-A restaurant chain, died Sept. 8 at age 93. Cathy, credited with creating the original Chick-fil-A chicken sandwich and pioneering quick-service food in malls, built the nation’s largest quick-service chicken chain based on systemwide sales. With $5 billion in annual sales in 2013, Chick-fil-A is also one of the…
Starboard Value, the activist investor group hoping to wrest control of Olive Garden from parent Darden Restaurants, released a soup-to-nuts prescription last week on how to "fix" the 800-unit family-style Italian chain. Apparently, much of it starts in the kitchen. Starboard’s nearly 300-page slide presentation lays out the changes it would make if it won…
In case you missed the news last week, Foodservice Equipment Reports magazine has announced the recipients of its 2015 Industry Excellence Awards. Seventeen awards are given: six to organizations for Management Excellence; six to individuals near or under the age of 40 selected as Young Lions; and five to Industry Service Award winners. The honors…
It doesn’t get any more 24/7 than this. Heritage Foodservice Group has launched heritageparts.com, offering its customers online tools and technology to research and buy parts, backed by integrated help from the company’s customer-service representatives. “Expanding our online reach is critical to the future success of Heritage,” said Heritage Pres./CEO John McDonough. “Heritageparts.com was created…
The home of the Grand Slam breakfast has settled into its first Manhattan location. Denny’s Corp.’s new diner, across the street from City Hall and just north of Wall Street, opened for business Aug. 28. It features a full bar (found in only a handful of other Denny’s units) and offers a $300 “grand slam…
Thailand’s Charoen Pokphand Foods is planning to roll out up to 500 quick-service Thai restaurants in Australia. The foodservice division of Thailand’s largest agribusiness company also plans to expand into the ready-to-eat meals segment during the next five years, with 300-500 stores offering a modern Thai quick-serve menu. The concept, 1000Wat, recently debuted in Melbourne;…
Three Taiwanese chains are branching out. OCOCO Int’l. Co. Ltd., which operates more than 1,800 Coco Fresh Tea & Juice outlets worldwide, will make its debut in the U.K. in the first quarter next year. The store will mark the bubble-tea chain’s first step into the European market; the company already has operations in Asia,…
Three U.S. investment firms are bidding for a Kuwaiti quick-serve holding company worth around $4 billion. The firms—TPG Capital, CVC Capital Partners and KKR & Co.—are seeking to acquire Kuwait Food Co., which operates about 1,500 KFC and Pizza Hut restaurants in the Middle East and North Africa, according to reports by Bloomberg. TPG also…