News Briefs

3Natives, a Florida-based nutrition-focused concept, announces its collaboration with GiftAMeal, an innovative cause-marketing program that turns customer photos into meals for local families in need. GiftAMeal will be implemented at 38 3Natives locations, marking a significant step forward in their shared mission to combat hunger and support local communities.

Renowned for their fresh, high quality menu of açaí bowls, smoothies, juices, wraps, and salads, 3Natives offers nutritious, fast-casual dining options and is not only committed to satisfying taste buds but also to making a positive impact in the neighborhoods it serves. This partnership comes at a time when many of 3Natives’ neighbors need it most after suffering devastating impacts from Hurricane Helene. Through this strategic partnership with GiftAMeal, 3Natives customers can play a direct role in supporting their local communities. Guests are invited to scan a GiftAMeal QR code at 3Natives and upload a photo of their food, drink, or even a selfie. For every customer photo, a donation will be made to a nearby food bank, covering the cost of distributing one meal’s worth of healthy groceries to a neighborhood pantry.

"We’re thrilled to partner with GiftAMeal to make a difference in the communities we serve,” says Brittney Scott, 3Natives Director of Marketing. “This partnership gives our guests a meaningful way to give back locally by simply snapping photos of their 3Natives experience, while also amplifying our brand through increased social media engagement. We love how GiftAMeal aligns with our commitment to fresh, healthy food and community impact, and we can’t wait to see the positive difference we can make together!"

GiftAMeal recently celebrated a milestone, surpassing 2,200,000 meals provided, equivalent to 2,640,000 pounds of food through its platform. The collaboration with 3Natives is expected to significantly contribute to this growing impact, fostering a strong sense of community engagement and social responsibility.

"We’re excited to partner with 3Natives to offer a simple way for diners to support their communities,” says Andrew Glantz, GiftAMeal CEO. “With many still recovering from Hurricane Helene, this initiative serves as a reminder of how small actions, like sharing a selfie, can make a meaningful impact right where it's needed."

GiftAMeal and 3Natives invite the community to join them in making a difference one photo at a time. Together, they aim to create a ripple effect of positive change, turning shared moments into tangible support for those facing food insecurity.

Encore, a global event technology and production services provider, confirmed today the launch of its pioneering ‘Overtime Savings Program’ in the United States, along with additional people-first programs to further support its ongoing workforce in a seasonal industry.

Powered by UKG’s payroll technology, this first-of-its-kind program aims to enhance financial wellness and stability for Encore’s frontline employees, many of whom work in markets that experience seasonal ebb and flow of business volumes.

With 12,000 team members providing event technology and production services at 2,200 hotels and conference venues in 20 countries, Encore faces the same challenges common in the hospitality industry. Seasonal fluctuations often result in workers’ hours varying from ample overtime during peak times to reduced schedules in off-season periods. This seasonality makes it difficult for workers to maintain consistent earnings and creates challenges for companies to retain talent in the off season.

“Encore has always believed its team members are the heart of our story. This people-first mindset motivates us to constantly evolve our team member experience and innovate around challenges, like the impact of seasonality, that the industry previously viewed as immutable,” said Ben Erwin, president and CEO of Encore.

In addition to the Overtime Savings Program, the company launched a Seasonal Leave of Absence Program, which offers team members the flexibility to take time off during slower seasons while retaining full benefits, accruing paid time off, and maintaining their tenure. This unique program enables employees to explore other work opportunities, pursue education, or focus on personal goals without sacrificing benefits or career progression. Both the Overtime Savings and Seasonal Leave of Absence Programs are active nationwide, with plans for global expansion.

“We established the program as another way to support our team members so that they can be at their best in delivering for our customers,” Erwin added. “With this innovation, they can better plan and save their premium overtime pay for periods of the year when they might not work as many hours. Providing this capability and funding a company-paid match for a portion of the savings should motivate financial wellness and enable them to continue to build their career with Encore. Team member reactions tell us we are onto something,” he said.

With a launch just after Labor Day, usage of the UKG Wallet™ increased tenfold compared to the prior year’s period. he company offered an initial savings match, similar to a 401k program incentive match, to reward healthy financial behavior.

“Financial stress is not a problem isolated to our industry, it’s a stressor for nearly everyone,” said Charlie Young, chief human resources officer at Encore. “Nearly 70% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck¹ and Americans spent $9B in bank overdraft fees in 2023. The more we can do to reduce stress for our team members, the more focused they can be on our customers. We are successful in the event production business because of the unique combination of our technical expertise, hospitality mindset and ability to work under pressure and through challenges. Seasonal fluctuations are part of our business, but with a partner like UKG that understands every industry has unique challenges, we were able to innovate to support those unique needs to make our team members’ lives better.”

Cody Browne, a technical lead with five years of service for Encore in Las Vegas, said he will try the Overtime Savings program, in addition to accruing and saving his Paid Time Off, for the slow season in December in Las Vegas. He hopes the vacation time, in addition to the saved overtime funds, will afford him an out-of-state vacation to visit family. “I love that Encore is creating new opportunities, that’s one of the reasons I am interested in growing my career here,” he said.

Brinker International announces the appointment of Mike Wesley as Vice President of Marketing for Maggiano's Little Italy. In this role, Wesley will be instrumental in further amplifying and building the Maggiano's brand as it enters its next era of classic Italian American dining, driving key marketing and promotional strategies. 

Wesley's passion and guidance will be pivotal in the evolution of Maggiano's culinary offerings and dining standards, which has been in motion since the appointment of Dominique Bertolone as Maggiano's Little Italy's President last year and more recently, the addition of Chef Anthony Amoroso, VP of Innovation and Growth.

"We couldn't be more pleased to welcome Mike to Maggiano's and know his experience will provide valuable insights to guide the brand toward new heights of growth and success as we craft this next chapter of the Maggiano's story," said Dominique Bertolone, President, Maggiano's Little Italy, and SVP, Brinker International. "We are certain that his visionary leadership style combined with his experience in driving brand relevance will enable us to elevate our marketing strategy in the months and years to come."

Wesley joins Maggiano's after a 14-year tenure at Yum! Brands, where he most recently served as VP of Brand Marketing, KFC U.S., strategizing key initiatives across the national calendar, including notable menu and brand innovations. Before Wesley transitioned into the food service industry, he held brand positions at Procter & Gamble in the North America Oral Health and Global Home Care categories, where he led strategies to enhance brand awareness, loyalty, and market share.

"This is an exciting time at Maggiano's, and I am looking forward to working with the team to continue building upon the great progress they have made, while finding new opportunities to celebrate this iconic Italian American brand," said Wesley. "I have had a lifelong passion for hospitality, having grown up in the restaurant industry working alongside my father. My experience at KFC allowed me to partner with various disciplines in service of creating great products and experiences for our restaurants. This next phase of my career certainly builds upon that passion, and I look forward to opportunity to work with all of the amazing Maggiano's Team Members."

Year over year, restaurants saw growth in both total sales (+8.1%) and foot traffic (+8.7%); however, average ticket sizes continued to decline (-1.3%) compared to 2023, accoring to  Fiserv Small Business Index for November 2024.

Food Services and Drinking Places, which includes restaurants, indexed at 131 in November, a 4-point increase compared to October.  On a monthly basis, both restaurant sales (+3.1%) and transactions (+1.9%) also rose, marking a second consecutive month of strong growth.

Published monthly, the Fiserv Small Business Index is derived from point-of-sale transaction data, including card, cash, and check transactions in-store and online across approximately 2 million U.S. small businesses (restaurants, retailers and services), including hundreds of thousands leveraging the Clover point-of-sale and business management platform.

“Holiday sales are critical for small businesses, with restaurants and retailers in particular benefitting from consumers getting out and patronizing local establishments during the final months of the year,” said Prasanna Dhore, Chief Data Officer at Fiserv. “Notably in November, food sales accelerated across both restaurant and grocery while Retail maintained the positive momentum from October, a significant increase when compared to 2023.”

Grocery Sales on the Rise

Nationally, the Fiserv Small Business Index for Retail was 150, holding steady compared to October. Year-over-year sales (+5.6%) and transactions (+9.5%) grew and average ticket sizes (-3.8%) continued to decline. Year over year, the fastest-growing retail categories were Grocery (+11.1), General Merchandise (+11.0%), Clothing, Shoes and Jewelry Retailers (+7.3%), and Furniture, Electronics, and Appliances (+6.8%).

On a monthly basis, sales (-0.1%) and transactions (+0.3%) were generally flat with no change in index value compared to October; a positive sign given the significant month-over-month growth retail saw the month prior. The strongest month-over-month gains were seen in Grocery (+2.4%), Furniture, Electronics and Appliances (+2.2%), and General Merchandise (+0.6%).

Services

Service-based small business sales grew compared to 2023 (+5.1%) but declined compared to October of 2024 (-1.8%) as consumers shifted more dollars to restaurants and retailers.

On a yearly basis, the fastest growing service categories were Information Services (+15.0%), Food Manufacturing (+14.8%) and Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services (+11.1%), and Truck Transportation (+7.9%). On a monthly basis, Food Manufacturing (3.6%) and Transportation Equipment Manufacturing (+1.9%) were the only service-based categories to grow sales compared to October.

Regional Trends

• Nearly all 50 U.S. states saw small business sales growth year over year. Nebraska (+13.1%), Florida (+11.5%), Alaska (+11.4%), South Carolina (+8.7%) and North Carolina (+8.0%) showed the most growth compared to 2023.
• Washington (+3.8%), Florida (+3.7%), Alaska (+1.8%) and Nevada (+0.3%) were the strongest performing states for small business sales growth month over month.
• Miami (+11.4%) and Atlanta (+7.5%) were the strongest-performing large cities for small business sales growth year over year.

Chicostay, a leading provider of hospitality technology solutions and a member of Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN), today announced that its digital check-in, in-stay, upsells and check-out solution is now available on Oracle Cloud Marketplace and can be deployed on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) and integrated with OPERA Cloud via the Oracle Hospitality Integration Platform (OHIP). Oracle Cloud Marketplace is a centralized repository of enterprise applications offered by Oracle and Oracle partners.

Chicostay empowers hotels to start digitizing their guest journey experience from post-booking through after-stay, resulting in the hotel being more productive at the front desk and increasing upsell revenues whilst also improving the guest experience. The managed service removes operational work from hotel teams and ensures all your guests receive personalized automated communications to boost the upsell and conversion rates for your products and services. Our two- way integration with Opera PMS ensures all changes are kept updated. Most importantly, our business model enables the service to be a new revenue stream and not a cost.

Oracle Cloud Marketplace is a one-stop shop for Oracle customers seeking trusted business applications and services offering unique solutions, including ones that extend Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications.

OCI is a deep and broad platform of cloud infrastructure services that enables customers to build and run a wide range of applications in a scalable, secure, highly available, and high-performance environment. From application development and business analytics to data management, integration, security, AI, and infrastructure services including Kubernetes and VMware, OCI delivers comprehensive security, performance, and cost savings. In addition, with multi cloud, hybrid cloud, public cloud, and dedicated cloud options, OCI’s distributed cloud offers customers the benefits of cloud with greater control over data residency, locality, and authority, even across multiple clouds. As a result, customers can bring enterprise workloads to the cloud quickly and efficiently while addressing the strictest regulatory compliance requirements. 

"Chicostay's availability on Oracle Cloud Marketplace helps customers with modern hospitality that owners and managers are looking for," said Tony Barker, CEO of Chicostay. ”Chicostay’s participation in Oracle Cloud Marketplace further extends our commitment to the Oracle community and enables customers to easily reap the benets of our digital check-in, in-stay, upsells and check-out solution. We look forward to leveraging the power of OCI to help us achieve our business goals.”

Chicostay, established in 2014, has redened guest experience through technology, gaining traction in the UK and across Europe. Following a successful transition to new ownership in 2024, the company remains focused on its mission to improve hotel guest experiences while lowering operating costs and creating new revenue streams.

Jack in the Box Inc. announced a strategic leadership restructure as Tony Darden, SVP, Chief Operating Officer, will depart from his role. Darden has been a valued member of the Jack in the Box executive team since June 2021.

“It has been an incredible privilege to work alongside such talented colleagues and franchisees at Jack in the Box the past few years,” says Darden. “I am immensely proud of what we achieved together during my time here.”

Darden’s departure is consistent with a planned restructure that includes Ryan Ostrom, currently serving as EVP, Chief Marketing & Digital Officer, assuming responsibility for Jack Operations in addition to his current function. Ostrom has been named Chief Customer & Digital Officer, effective December 6, 2024.

“We are grateful for Tony’s dedication and the many contributions he’s made to the Jack in the Box brand,” said CEO, Darin Harris. “As we look to the future, we have a greater focus on customer centricity and are confident that Ryan’s proven leadership and deep understanding of our customers will help us execute that drive.”

Ostrom has been with the company since February 2021, leading the path for the Jack in the Box and Del Taco digital transformation and modernizing how customers engage with the brands. In this new role, he will continue to drive their initiatives of building brand loyalty and driving operations excellence while fostering alignment and efficiency across teams.

“I am excited to lead this next chapter for the company as this evolution will help us create greater alignment and focus,” said Ostrom. “I am confident that we will navigate this transition seamlessly and continue to drive value for our customers.”