News Briefs

Church's Texas Chicken has selected ParTech Inc.'s loyalty and offers solution, PAR Punchh.  to enhance their customer experience. This collaboration promises to redefine how customers engage with their favorite chicken brand.

Crafting a Superior Experience

By choosing PAR’s Punchh platform, Church's Texas Chicken is transforming its guest engagement and loyalty program. This decision was driven by Punchh’s proven expertise in swiftly implementing comprehensive loyalty solutions tailored to the dynamic needs of the restaurant industry.

PAR Punchh's platform will empower Church's Texas Chicken to streamline offer management and implement a full loyalty program to drive customer satisfaction and loyalty. This collaboration marks a significant milestone for both Punchh and Church's Texas Chicken, signaling a joint commitment to elevating the customer experience in the quick-service restaurant sector.

"PAR Punchh has consistently demonstrated the ability to quickly implement comprehensive loyalty solutions that meet the dynamic needs of large-scale operations for our brand," said Jessica Wu-McConnell, Vice President of Digital and Loyalty at Church's Texas Chicken. "Their responsive support and proven scalability were key factors in our decision, ensuring a smooth and efficient launch of our loyalty initiatives."

Rewards 

Church's Texas Chicken has launched an all-new loyalty program, Church’s Real Rewards, at all their U.S. locations. This program leverages Punchh’s Loyalty and Campaigns solutions to offer a robust, points-based experience. 

Mark Shambura has joined Panera Bread as Chief Marketing Officer. Shambura will lead all aspects of marketing at Panera, including Brand Building, Digital & Loyalty, Product Strategy & Consumer Insights. An accomplished marketing leader with broad expertise in the restaurant industry, Mr. Shambura has previously held marketing leadership roles during pivotal growth periods for top brands including Chipotle, MOD Pizza, and most recently Papa Johns.

"Mark brings an impressive background building brands and leading marketing teams for fast-casual restaurants, and we’re thrilled to welcome him to Panera Bread,” said José Alberto Dueñas, Chief Executive Officer. “As Panera continues to evolve our brand, guided by listening to our guests, Mark’s depth of experience and ability will help drive our growth as a brand that serves great food you feel good about eating.”

Shambura previously served as CMO at Papa Johns, where he led a revitalization of the brand by enhancing its iconic “Better Ingredients, Better Pizza” platform, and developing a more modern, innovative omnichannel approach to transform how Papa Johns appealed to both new and loyal consumers. As Executive Director at Chipotle, Mr. Shambura guided the marketing function through periods of both sustained growth and transition, providing leadership over brand strategy, advertising, digital, social, events/sponsorships, promotions, and field marketing, including playing a key role in spearheading its “Real Ingredients” brand strategy.

“I’m proud to join the Panera Bread team and excited to build on the momentum of the brand's transformation as it continues to evolve in service of our guests,” Mr. Shambura said. “Panera propelled and cemented its position at the top of the fast casual restaurant segment through its promise of high-quality ingredients and freshly prepared food, and I’m thrilled to join a highly talented team to help shape its next chapter.”

Prior to his tenure in the restaurant industry, Mr. Shambura gained extensive marketing agency experience, working with a broad array of top global consumer brands for over a decade. Shambura will report directly to José Alberto Dueñas, Chief Executive Officer, and officially assumed the role of Chief Marketing Officer on July 29, 2024.

Chris Kung has joined Zaxby's as its new Chief Digital Officer. He will lead the transformation and acceleration of the company's Loyalty and e-Commerce initiatives.  

"Zaxbys rapid expansion requires the investment of world-class leaders and resources," said Bernard Acoca, Zaxbys CEO. "Chris's expertise in e-Commerce and loyalty programs will help drive incremental growth and enhance the Zaxbys experience as digital touchpoints continue to proliferate throughout the customer journey. His arrival will help us build stronger relationships with our guests by deepening our understanding of their needs and rewarding their patronage with personalized experiences." 

Growing Loyalty

Kung brings over 20 years of innovation and strategy experience to Zaxbys and most recently served as Chief Digital Officer at Dollar General, where he led initiatives that transformed the company into a digital innovator. Kung played a central role in creating the myDG loyalty program. Under his leadership, the company's e-Commerce sales grew 40x in three years, app usage surged from 1.8 million to 7 million monthly active users, and the DG App earned the distinction of the #1 couponing app in America.

Prior to Dollar General, Kung held key leadership positions at Macy's Inc., where he drove omnichannel technology and innovation.

Zaxbys is establishing a new Loyalty & e-Commerce Team, which will report to Kung. This new team will spearhead efforts to make Loyalty and e-Commerce significant contributors to its growth. The creation of the Chief Digital Officer role will open capacity and drive focus for Mike Nettles, Chief Technology Officer, and Patrick Schwing, Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer, who both previously oversaw a portion of this role.  

Grubhub is expanding its Campus Dining business to more than 60 schools . Grubhub Campus Dining is the higher-ed-focused part of Grubhub's business that serves college students and directly integrates mobile ordering into campus meal plans. 

With these new additions, Grubhub now reaches half a million new students and serves a total of more than 4.5 million students.

New campus partners include the University of Alabama at Birmingham, the University of Tampa, the University of Missouri, Howard University and Tulane University. With the addition of these campuses, Grubhub now works with more than 360 universities, up 21 percent from last year.

Automated Delivery with Robots 

Grubhub partners with Cartken, Kiwibot and Starship to provide robot delivery on college campuses and is expanding to nearly a dozen more schools this semester. New additions include the University of Mississippi, Prairie View A&M University, Howard University, the University of New Mexico and the University of Houston.

Robot delivery is currently found on more than 20 campuses—including The Ohio State University, the University of Arizona, the University of Notre Dame and the University of North Dakota—where hundreds of thousands of orders have been delivered via robots to date.

Amazon's Just Walk Out Technology

Ursinus College, the University of Virginia and Lindenwood University are deploying Amazon's Just Walk Out technology on campuses this fall. Ahead of last year's fall semester, Grubhub brought Amazon's Just Walk Out technology to its campus partners to enhance the dining experience. This technology allows users to shop at campus convenience stores and skip the checkout line. At the same time, payment is automatically deducted from their meal plan, declining account balance, or other linked Grubhub payment methods. Schools that have already adopted this technology include Stevens Institute of Technology, Montclair State University and Loyola University Maryland.

Sustainable Solutions 

Grubhub partners with Topanga.io, a reusable packaging management platform, to bring a sustainable dining solution to its campus partners. Through Topanga.io's ReusePass program, students can select reusable packaging at checkout and have their meals packaged in a reusable container, utilizing Topanga.io's track-and-trace technology.

Virginia Tech and the State University of New York at New Paltz are deploying this technology this semester. Schools that already use this technology include California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, The Ohio State University, Colorado State University, Boston University, The University of Delaware and Brandeis University.

Grubhub Campus Dining
With Grubhub Campus Dining, campuses can choose the solution that works best for them—whether it's mobile integration, on- or off-campus ordering, or both. Students can easily find both on- and off-campus dining options and view their available balance on their campus homepage within the Grubhub mobile app. These solutions help campuses increase the value of their dining services by providing students with more flexibility in how and when they use their dining plans.

And for even greater value, students whose schools are partnered with Grubhub are eligible to receive Grubhub+ Student for free. That means $0 delivery fees and lower service fees on eligible orders, 5 percent back in Grubhub+ credit on off-campus pickup orders, exclusive deals and more. 

Agilysys, Inc., a global provider of hospitality software solutions and services, announced it has acquired Book4Time, Inc., a provider of spa management SaaS software, serving more Forbes 5-Star-rated spas than any other solution.

As the top enterprise SaaS technology for wellness hospitality organizations, Book4Time manages guest experiences at spas, international hotels, resorts, casinos, golf and private member clubs in more than 100 countries. Acquiring Book4Time expands the opportunity for Agilysys to increase its solutions-per-customer penetration globally.

Hospitality properties use Book4Time to improve revenue, operational efficiency and capacity utilization for spa operations by utilizing the system’s appointment booking, contactless guest intake, revenue and yield management and other capabilities. Book4Time grew its global footprint, in part, through relationships with global hotel and resort brands; integrations with more than 60 technology providers, including property management systems (PMS) and point-of-sale systems (POS); and its highly efficient remote implementation, training and support capabilities.

Roger Sholanki, Book4Time Founder and Chief Executive Officer, commented, “Over the past 20 years, we have worked hand-in-hand with the world’s leading hospitality brands in over 100 countries to develop the industry’s #1 SaaS platform for spa and wellness operations. We are excited about the opportunity to join forces with the impressive Agilysys team and our shared vision to deliver High Return Hospitality. The technology innovation strengths of Agilysys and the broad range of state-of-the-art solutions in their portfolio, including membership and golf, exponentially elevates the value we can deliver to clients.”

Agilysys President and CEO Ramesh Srinivasan commented, “In addition to sharing our commitment to equipping hospitality staff with world-class technology that helps them better serve their guests, the exceptionally talented and dedicated Book4Time team shares our skills in working with some of the most renowned and discerning properties in the world.”

Mr. Srinivasan continued, “We look forward to accelerating hospitality technology innovation together as we combine our product strengths, fully tap our mutual passion for serving customers and make our value proposition to the hospitality industry even more compelling. While we share some industry-leading customers, such as Marriott International and Hilton, there is minimal overlap of properties in our respective customer bases, presenting opportunities to introduce additional software solutions to a wider range of existing customers.”

The all-cash transaction closed for approximately $150 million USD, subject to customary closing adjustments. Any impacts to the Company’s financial guidance for the 2025 fiscal year along with further details will be discussed during the upcoming Agilysys fiscal 2025 second quarter earnings call in October 2024.