| Welcome Kerri,
Here's your March 22, 2011 edition of the Foodservice Monitor.
Miss a past issue? Check our archives.
We always welcome your feedback.
-The Technomic Foodservice Monitor Team
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CHAIN NEWS – Marketing |
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Boston’s Restaurant & Sports Bar raises nearly $60,000 for the
During the annual Boston’s Cares fundraiser, Boston’s restaurants across the United States sold thousands of heart-shaped items, including 16,860 pizzas, 2,652 Mini Dipper appetizers, 4,775 Chocolate Amoré desserts and 28,843 paper Valentines. An additional $2,954 was raised through local events held at various Boston’s locations across the country. Boston’s donated all proceeds from the paper hearts and $1 from each food item sold to JDRF research.
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The Domino’s Effect: Honest feedback yielding honest advertising
Turns out, honesty really is the best policy. Just look at Domino’s. When the pizza giant solicited honest opinions about its product, the feedback was less than favorable. So, the company embarked upon a full product overhaul and subsequent ad campaign that promoted the fundamental changes to its product -- from the crust to the sauce.
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Greenopia ranks top green restaurant chains
Greenopia, which researches eco-friendly retailers, services and organizations, has recently named its most sustainable restaurant chains. Companies were ranked based on Greenopia’s green leaf system, with criteria based on green building design, supply chain, recycling/take-back programs and sustainability reporting.
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Yum! Canada taps new media agency
Yum! Restaurants Canada has assigned its $25 million traditional and digital media planning/buying duties to MediaCom Canada. MediaCom replaces ZenithOptimedia and was tapped after a 12-week search that included eight finalist agencies. The agencies were evaluated on cost, cultural fit, planning capabilities and innovation capabilities in direct correlation with Yum!’s KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell brands.
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CHAIN NEWS – Expansion |
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Chester Gets Set to Take off with IMC at Newest Airport Location
Chester's, a leading fried chicken foodservice offering, is proud to announce the grand opening of its newest location in the Dominican Republic. The Santo Domingo location can be found at Las Americas JFPG International Airport, and celebrated its grand opening on March 8th. "
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Grimaldi's founders plan fast casual burger concept
Grimaldi’s Pizzeria has announced its current expansion plans that call for new locations in Dallas, West Palm Beach, Fla., and various other sites. The Scottsdale, Ariz.-based company is also setting its sites beyond the pizza oven, with the launch of a new fast casual concept called Coal Burger.
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Seasons 52 Announces Plan to Open New Restaurant At Roosevelt Field Mall in Garden City, NY
Seasons 52, the highly-acclaimed fresh grill and wine bar restaurant, has selected Roosevelt Field Mall in Garden City, NY as a site for future expansion. Expected to open in spring of 2012, the new restaurant will be the company’s 21st location. Seasons 52 is recognized for its forward-thinking restaurant concept with proven consumer appeal.
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Sodexo to open Indian fast casual restaurant
Sodexo Inc. has announced today that it has signed a master retail license agreement with the award-winning Indian concept, Café Spice, to bring traditional Indian cuisine to Sodexo operations across country. The concept made its non-traditional debut in the university segment this fall at Sodexo-managed Babson College in Massachusetts and at Georgia Tech in Atlanta.
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Starbucks Expands to Guatemala
On Saturday Starbucks opened its first retail outlet in the Central American country in a joint venture with Corporación de Franquicias Americanas. The coffee shop is located in the Condado Concepción shopping center. The location will sell single-origin coffee from the region, Guatemala Finca El Faro, as well as the full range of Starbucks beverages.
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CHAIN NEWS – Menu |
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Moe’s adds spicy items to fresh-Mex menu
Moe’s Southwest Grill has introduced its new Spicy Trio menu options, available March 21-May 15. Moe’s new Spicy Queso and Jalapeno Sour Cream are the featured ingredients of the spicy burrito, quesadilla and rice bowl. The Spicy Queso features the smoky chipotle flavor of Moe’s Hard Rock n Roll Sauce combined with its queso, which can now be ordered as a side item with any meal in addition to the Spicy Trio.
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Hardee's introducing turkey burgers this week
Hardee's may be known for monster-size burgers with eye-popping calorie counts, but the chain is trying out a turkey burger that's a little more diet-concious. The turkey burger will be available in Hardee's restaurants this week. In North Carolina, there are about 240 Hardee's, including about 25 in the Triangle.
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Tim Hortons tests new espresso drinks in Columbus market
Tim Hortons is already the nation's No.2 coffee purveyor. But it is taking steps to capture a piece of the specialty-coffee business, which makes up nearly half of all coffee sales in the U.S. The cafe and bake-shop chain, which has its U.S. headquarters in Dublin, is rolling out espresso and espresso-based beverages in its 68 Columbus-area restaurants.
| Columbus Dispatch 3/21/11 |
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CHAIN NEWS – Personnel |
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CEO Interview: UFood Restaurant Group, Inc. - George Naddaff
George Naddaff is the CEO of UFood Restaurant Group, Inc. He developed Boston Chicken/Boston Market Corporation into a national franchise brand, and in 1992 he sold it to a group of Blockbuster Inc. executives. In 1993 he shared in its record-setting IPO, with a 143% first-day increase. Mr. Naddaff began his career in food service when he co-founded International Foods, which operated 19 KFC franchises in the Boston area and was sold in 1970.
| The Wall Street Journal Transcript 3/21/11 |
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CHAIN NEWS – Other |
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Granite City Food & Brewery to Launch Bottled Beer Line
Granite City Food & Brewery today announced the launch of a bottled beer line in retail stores outside of their 26 restaurants throughout the Midwest. Through its patented beer processing system, Granite City has been developing and brewing some of the best handcrafted beers available throughout the region. Today, Granite City ranks as the #6 largest Brewpub Group in the United States with approximately 600,000 gallons of beer sold in 2010.
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ANALYST CORNER |
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MCD: Who's "Winning!" at Burger King's Expense? Duh! McDonald's!
A number of signs suggest that the transition into private ownership may not be going all that well for Burger King Holdings, the #2 burger chain in terms of U.S. systemwide sales. We view this as an advantage going forward for McDonald's (MCD $73.74; Buy), which continues to generate some of the very best same-store sales numbers within the domestic burger category.
| Janney Capital Markets 3/22/11 |
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SONC: Earnings Preview
The Company recently preannounced same-store sales (SSS) that were positive for the first time in 3 years but below our projections as weather was once again a factor in the Company's core markets of Texas and Oklahoma. In terms of an outlook on the 2Q11 release, we believe that SSS have continued to improve post February based on our channel checks as SONC's new line of specialty hot dogs is performing well and weather has improved.
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ECONOMIC NEWS |
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The 10 strongest retail markets
The Washington, D.C., area topped the list of the nation’s most healthy retail markets as a growing number of restaurant companies and retailers ramp up expansion, according to a report released Monday. San Francisco, New York City, Boston and San Diego also ranked high as attractive retail markets in the U.S. National Retail Report.
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Finalists named for James Beard Awards
A growing number of newcomers made it onto the list of finalists for this year’s James Beard Foundation Awards, which many consider to be the industry’s most prestigious honor for restaurants, chefs and foodservice professionals. Nominees for best new restaurant are ABC Kitchen in New York City, Benu in San Francisco, Girl & the Goat in Chicago, Menton in Boston and Torrisi Italian Specialties in New York City.
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Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Speakers Bureau
If you need a subject expert for an upcoming event, our staff provides speaking services on a wide range of foodservice topics.
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