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CNN Small Business reports that U.S. franchises are enjoying newfound interest and success abroad, as the hard-hit U.S. economy has made domestic expansion harder. U.S. franchises are growing decidedly faster abroad than they are in the United States, where growth was flat at best between 2010 and 2012.
At the franchise expo in New York City this year, one fifth of attendees were from foreign countries, including Kuwait, Peru, Bangladesh, China, and the United Arab Emirates.
The increased interest and opportunity for growth has allowed U.S. franchises to demand more favorable terms from franchisees, as well, such as requiring them to open multiple units.
For the full story, click here.
The Washington City Paper profiled several D.C.-area chefs who are rapidly expanding the number of restaurants to their names, often opening new enterprises every two years or less. Those profiled include Mike Isabella and Spike Mendelsohn.
The chefs interviewed say the pressures to build an “empire” are coming from multiple sources, from the new definition of a successful chef perpetuated by the Food Network (which now includes blogs, book deals, shows, and merchandise), to the hype generated from new concepts, to the shortage of cooks and the need to create a place for talented staff to move up and not on.
For more on this trend, read the full article here.
Refrigerated trucks carrying locally-sourced produce will begin driving through New York City’s food deserts, neighborhoods underserved by farmers markets and traditional grocery stores. Called Veggie Vans, these trucks will offer local produce to residents at a reasonable price.
Residents sign up to participate in the program through participating community organizations, then have access to $10 bags filled with produce each week. Residents can use cash, credit, debit, and food stamps to purchase the bags. Veggie Vans will stop at senior centers, NYCHA buildings, nursing homes, and other locations each week so that all residents can have easy access.
The trucks will begin today in Manhattan’s Two Bridges neighborhood and expand to other communities, including Harlem and Washington Heights. The program is open to anyone wishing to participate.
For more information, click here.
Panera Bread announced this week that it will table its most recent venture in the pay-what-you-can model– a Turkey Chili in a Bread Bowl meal offered at all of its 48 St. Louis-area locations. Guests at those locations were asked to pay what they could afford for the meal, which has a suggested retail price of $5.89, including tax.
Panera introduced the meal as a way to help the needy in the area, with those who can afford to pay above the retail price subsidizing the cost for those who could afford less. While the program initially raised awareness for food insecurity and brought in revenues above the suggested retail price due, which Panera founder and chairman Ron Shaich credits to in-store marketing and educational campaigns, the program’s effectiveness began to dwindle, with payments dropping off and awareness dropping.
Shaich said Panera plans to bring back the program next winter in a reworked format in select markets as a seasonal program. The nonprofit Panera Cares cafes, which operate on a completely pay-what-you-can-model and offer job training programs, will continue to operate as-is.
For the full story, click here.
In this free webinar, experts from Marsh & McLennan Agency and PeopleMatter will offer insights on how the Affordable Care Act affects foodservice, hospitality, and retail businesses and how to remain profitable while staying compliant. They will particularly address what the Affordable Care Act requires, rules affecting enterprises with multiple locations, and tools to help owners manage benefits and labor costs.
The webinar is free and will take place July 18, 2013 at 1pm EDT. For more information and to register, click here.
Yelp announced that it has launched a direct-from-site online transaction service, called Yelp Platform, that will allow Yelpers to order food directly from an enterprise’s Yelp page. The service is available for restaurants already offering food delivery and pickup through online ordering platforms delivery.com and Eat24. Yelp plans to expand the service to offer ordering from additional restaurants in the future, and eventually expand the transactions to other product categories such as salons and dentists, allowing users to book appointments online.
The transaction platform is the latest move by Yelp to streamline user interactions with its listed enterprises. In 2010, Yelp integrated with OpenTable to allow users to make reservations through Yelp. Earlier this year, Yelp integrated health inspection scores onto the listing pages for its San Francisco enterprises.
For the full story, click here.
The Specialty Food Association announced its take on the top trends from this summer’s Fancy Food Show, the association’s major semiannual industry trade show. The top five new trends were:
Continuing trends included single-serve snacks, Vietnamese flavors, chickpea and seaweed snacks, maple products, sweet and savory cookies, coconut, salted caramel, and gluten-free products.
For the full story, click here.
Fast-casual pizza concepts are growing, both in terms of sales and number of enterprises, according to the latest report from Restaurant Hospitality. Fast-casual pizza has grown to a $31 billion segment in the last 20 years. Adding in casual dining Italian enterprises, the pizza market balloons to a $50 billion industry.
Inspired by the rise of fast-casual giant Chipotle, build-your-own pizza enterprises in the fast-casual segment are positioning themselves as artisanal, high-quality brands where guests are in control of their own experience. Even major chains are recognizing the trend and offering more high-quality specialty toppings.
Many of the big players in the pizza market, such as Sbarro, are also entering the build-your-own space alongside independents, making the pizza landscape highly competitive for the foreseeable future.
For a full roundup of the space’s key players and an in-depth assessment of the trend, click here.
Some changes are in store for the New York City letter grade health inspection system, the city announced this week. The proposed changes include:
The letter grade system has been criticized by many since its inception three years ago. Enterprise owners in the city have alleged that the city’s system is arbitrary and unnecessarily harsh. City Councilmembers have expressed concern that the system is harming small businesses in the city and is no longer focused on food safety. “’Food safety is no longer the focus,” said City Councilman David G. Greenfield (D-44th.) “The focus, really, is about making a quick buck.’” Fines collected from restaurants have jumped from $30 million annually to $50 million annually since the letter grade system began.
City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said she hoped the reforms would strike a balance “’between protecting the health and safety of New Yorkers and easing the unfair burden on all of the restaurants out there.’”
While the Bloomberg administration stands by the effectiveness of the program, citing a decrease in salmonella cases across the city, it indicated that it was open to reforms amidst complaints from enterprise owners.
For the full story, click here.
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