Tim Horton’s has been in the news over the past several weeks for a number of reasons. First, the Canadian coffee chain announced a few weeks ago that it was introducing flatbread pizzas as a new limited time offer at about 20 locations in the Toronto market. They followed that up by announcing the brand’s…
Read More »In its Q4 earnings call with investors just over one week ago, Restaurant Brands International (RBI) CEO Jose Cil confessed that earnings from the Tim Horton Brand had dragged overall results for RBI. The Canadian coffee and donuts chain saw comparable store sales drop 4.3% in the fourth quarter while system-wide sales growth dropped almost…
Read More »Krispy Kreme walked back its earlier decision to bring the hammer down on enterprising college student Jayson Gonzalez. The college senior was driving 8 hours one way to Iowa to purchase dozens of Krispy Kreme donuts weekly. He would then drive back to his college in Minnesota where there are no stores and resell the…
Read More »Wendy’s plans to jump into the deep end of the breakfast pool in 2020 with plans to expand breakfast to all 6700 stores in the system. President and CEO Todd Pinegar announced the planned launch this week and explained the company is prepared to spend some $20 million on the breakfast expansion. Currently, the company…
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Many franchisors utilize so-called “no-poach” clauses in their franchise agreements, and such clauses may be structured in a way that limits a franchisee’s ability to hire employees of other, same-brand franchisees and/or employees of the franchisor. Recently, a group of state attorneys general and prominent legislators began pressing franchisors to cease use of so-called “no-poach”…
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Whether it’s using self-check out at major department and grocery stores or forgoing the cashier to order from a digital menu, today’s consumers have come to accept – and even prefer – interacting with automated features as they purchase goods and services. “[Automation is] a positive direction for the QSR industry,” says Erik Thoresen, principal…
Read More »Not a surprise, but the latest news reports that Popeyes CEO Cheryl Bachelder will step down from her post once the Atlanta-based chain is acquired by Burger King and Tim Horton parent company Restaurant Brands International. Elsewhere in the QSR space, McDonalds held its Investor Day Wednesday and was unusually candid in its outlook and…
Read More »It was reported this week that Starbucks is acquiring an ownership stake in Italian bakery Princi, with 4 locations in Italy and one in central London. The company also made headlines this week when it announced that it was increasing wages across the board by 5% up to the manager level and adding further enhancements…
Read More »Earlier this year, Wendys acknowledged that the POS system used by many of its franchisees had been breached, subsequently estimating in May that approximately 300 stores were affected. This week, the company acknowledged that the actual number of stores with malware infecting their POS system could be “considerably higher”. McDonalds has announced that it will…
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It’s a lingering question: Is McDonald’s all-day breakfast hurting Dunkin’ or isn’t it? According to John Gordon, principal of Pacific Management Consulting Group and DDIFO’s restaurant analyst, the question will hang around for a while longer. “It’s still too early,” says Gordon. “First, Nigel Travis says Dunkin’ didn’t see any impact and then he says…
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