Finance

Garbanzo Partners With Gemini Investors for Expansion

QSR magazine — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:32:04 +0000

Garbanzo Mediterranean Grill, a Denver-based fast-casual restaurant concept offering fresh, healthy, and authentic Mediterranean cuisine, announced today its partnership with Gemini Investors, a private equity firm based in Wellesley, Massachusetts, that provides equity capital to established, middle market businesses.

Arby’s Franchisee Finds Success With RTIconnect

QSR magazine — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 18:21:26 +0000

Carter Miller is a self-described finance guy, so when he talks about software for his restaurant company, he talks about the ease of achieving results. His back office software is RTIconnect.

Bentley-Miller Corp. operates 20 Arby’s restaurants in Nebraska, South Dakota, Montana, and Wyoming.

Before RTIconnect, the company used a system that was a bit labor-intensive, according to Miller. He appreciates the swift response time of the RTIconnect system, where changes are immediately evident.

Krispy Kreme Franchisee Implements MICROS Simphony

QSR magazine — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 08:15:00 +0000

Hospitality Solutions International (HSI), a division of MICROS Systems, Inc., is pleased to announce that Glazing Saddles, LLC, a franchisee of Krispy Kreme Doughnut

Corporation, has chosen to implement MICROS Simphony, a cloud-based point-of-service and enterprise restaurant management system.

All eight of the franchise’s locations will benefit from MICROS Simphony’s service- oriented architecture (SOA), which enables the central management of menus, payroll, scheduling, gift cards, and loyalty functions from anywhere through a web browser.

Chick-fil-A Surpasses $4 Billion in Sales in 2011

QSR magazine — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 20:10:51 +0000

In continuing with its trend of strong sales performance, Chick-fil-A, Inc. announces that it exceeded $4 billion in annual sales in 2011. A record for the Atlanta-based chain, annual systemwide sales at Chick-fil-A totaled $4,050,992,837, a 13.08 percent increase over the 2010 overall sales performance.

The company also generated a healthy 7 percent same-store sales increase, and marked the 44th consecutive year of sales growth since the company began in 1967.

FCSI Offers Conference Grants to Emerging Leaders

QSR magazine — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:22:29 +0000

FCSI-The Americas, the only consulting society dedicated to serving independent foodservice design and hospitality management professionals, today announced the availability of several $1,000 conference grants designed to defray the costs of attending the 2012 conference this April in Kansas City, Missouri.

 Several $1,000 grants are being offered to qualifying foodservice professionals wishing to attend the FCSI The Americas 2012 Conference. Applicants must be non-FCSI members as well as foodservice and hospitality consultants with fewer than five years of experience.   

The Global 30

QSR magazine — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:42:41 +0000

Editor insights into the top quick-serve and fast-casual brands outside the U.S.

QSR has been reporting on the largest companies in the quick-service segment for nearly 15 years. For many of those years (now more than a decade), we’ve also delivered a top-level ranking called the QSR 50 each August.

Is Franchising Right for You?

QSR magazine — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 05:00:00 +0000

CEOs looking to franchise their concepts must make sure it’s the appropriate next step of growth.

As the economy slowly strengthens, founders of successful eateries may be considering franchising as a growth model, but experts say CEOs must approach it with caution and do their due diligence to make sure it’s appropriate for their brand.

The first step, experts say, is to explore the viability of their brand on a bigger scale.

Bringing American Brands to the Middle East

QSR magazine — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 05:00:00 +0000

International businessman Mohammad Al Madani shares his tips on how to best translate an American brand in a foreign land.

Mohammad Al Madani is a worldly man. After graduating from the University of Tulsa, Oklahoma, with a bachelor’s degree in petroleum engineering, Madani went home to Dubai and launched an engineering consultancy firm, Apex International Engineering Consulting. Since then, Madani has become a prominent businessman in Dubai by building an impressive franchise portfolio that holds more than 10 companies, including Levi’s, Hang Ten, Dockers, and Charley’s Grilled Subs.

Restaurant Outlook at Highest Level in Nearly Six Years

QSR magazine — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:55:43 +0000

Fueled by solid same-store sales and traffic results and a bullish outlook among restaurant operators, the National Restaurant Association’s Restaurant Performance Index (RPI) rose sharply in December.

The RPI–a monthly composite index that tracks the health of and outlook for the U.S. restaurant industry–stood at 102.2 in December, up 1.6 percent from November and its highest level in nearly six years.

United Capital Lends $42 Million to Popeyes Franchisees

QSR magazine — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 13:39:22 +0000

United Capital Business Lending, a national business lender specializing in franchised restaurant finance, announced today that it will allocate $42 million to qualified, multi-unit Popeyes franchisees in 2012.

The Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen chain recently designated United Capital as one of its lending partners for the franchisor’s 2012 reimaging initiative.