News Briefs

Officials of HEI Hotels & Resorts, a hospitality investment and management company, announced that Cindy Murphy has been named regional vice president of operations.

“A hospitality expert with nearly thirty years of experience, Cindy is the ideal candidate to help HEI achieve its growth goals by providing invaluable support to our general managers in the field,” said Anthony Rutledge, managing partner and CEO, HEI Hotels & Resorts. “She has worked at virtually all levels of the industry, from property level positions with Embassy Suites by Hilton to corporate roles with IHG and Sonesta. This vast experience provides her with a unique perspective that will benefit our entire portfolio. Throughout her career, Cindy has demonstrated an uncanny ability to find the best in her teams. Cindy brings something ‘extra’ to the table, and we look forward to her working her magic at HEI.”

Prior to joining HEI, Murphy was vice president of operations and head of the Sonesta Select brand for Sonesta Hotels where she was responsible for 224 company managed hotels that generated $750 million annually. She also held similar roles with IHG as vice president of franchise performance support and Trust Hospitality, LLC, as vice president of operations and technical services. Murphy worked at Marriott International as senior director brand management for Marriott’s Autograph Collection and played a key role in the growth and long-term viability of Marriott’s collection of unique independent luxury and upper upscale hotels. Additionally, Murphy held leadership roles with Choice Hotels and Hilton Hotel Corp. She is an AHLEI Certified Hotel Administrator (CHA) and is certified in hotel real estate investments and asset management by Cornell University. Murphy received her Bachelor of Science in business administration with a concentration in hospitality management from DeVry University and her Master of Business Administration from Emory University Goizueta Business School.

“I had the good fortune to work with HEI in a franchise support role for the past five years, and their sincerity, expertise and professionalism were immediately apparent,” Murphy noted. "HEI stands apart from the competition by living and breathing their business ethos. I'm excited for this next chapter in my career, and I look forward to providing our general managers with the tools they need to not only succeed in their day-to-day jobs, but also to assist them along their own professional career arcs.”

Up and coming QSR  Salad and Go  is expanding in Texas with three new locations opening in February in the Houston markets of Katy, Richmond and League City.

The Katy store located opened February 1, the Richmond location at  is set to open February 17, and the League City store plans to open its doors on February 22. These new locations will mark the start of rapid brand expansion across the Greater Houston area.

These suburbs were strategically selected as ideal markets for Salad and Go as some of the fastest growing communities in the region. Conveniently located in some of Houston's most popular suburbs, the new locations will provide fresh, high-quality meals with quick and easy convenience at an affordable price.

As Salad and Go continues growing its national presence with a strong focus on Arizona, Texas, Oklahoma, and Nevada, the brand's expansive growth has it on a positive trajectory to provide fresh and affordable food to communities in more than 125 locations by the end of 2023. Houston is the next step in the brand's expansion across Texas with plans to open additional stores in the market throughout the new year.

Salad and Go's chef-curated menu provides guests with food for any time of the day by offering a variety of delicious and healthy items including salads, wraps, breakfast burritos and soup as well as beverages including hand-crafted lemonades, teas and cold brew coffees.

Salad and Go ensures each meal contains fresh, quality ingredients while keeping prices low by vertically integrating operations and distribution, and sourcing ingredients directly from high-quality local farmers and suppliers whenever possible. The brand's mission to make fresh, nutritious food convenient and affordable for ALL extends beyond its stores and is demonstrated in the work the brand does to donate 4,000 meals every week to those in need, as well as in partnerships with nonprofits to support and fundraise for various worthy causes.

Focus Brands says dual branding is the future of QSR, and the parent company of Auntie Anne’s®, Carvel, Cinnabon, Jamba, McAlister’s Deli, Moe’s Southwest Grill, and Schlotzsky’s, is leading the charge. Today, the Focus Brands portfolio boasts 175-plus open dual branded units with at least 65 more in various stages of development across the country. 

Drive-Thru Convenience

The Focus Brands portfolio brands have signed agreements to open more than 50 dual and tri-brand locations in the coming year, many of which include drive-thrus for added convenience as interest in dual branded franchise opportunities continues to surge.

Flexible Store Formats

Focus Brands is among the brands introducing new store formats, including Krystal, Jack-in-the-Box and Panera Bread, which opened its Panera To Go, solely offering Rapid Pick-Up and Delivery shelves where guests and delivery drivers can easily pick up orders.  

Focus Brands has long pioneered the concept of dual branding, predominately in malls and non-traditional locations with Auntie Anne’s and Cinnabon. Now, the company’s portfolio brands have found new opportunities with streetside dual branded units, which is paving the way for immense franchise growth. 

“Dual branding is the future of our brands, especially on the specialty side of the business,” said Brian Krause, Chief Development Officer at Focus Brands. “There will always be a place in malls, but there is an immense amount of growth opportunity in streetside venues, and, by dual branding, there is more opportunity for enhanced revenue.”

The company invested heavily in consumer research to identify how to create combinations of its iconic brands to resonate with consumers and meet them where they want to be met.

Focus Brands has identified four dual-brand concepts:

• Auntie Anne’s/Cinnabon
• Auntie Anne’s/Cinnabon/Carvel
• Auntie Anne’s/Jamba
• Cinnabon/Carvel – Cinnabon Swirl. 

While key consumer benefits vary by dual-brand combination, one consistent benefit has been convenience. Having these brands together in one location makes them far more accessible than they are individually. This convenience also creates opportunity for franchisees, as co-branding leads to an expansive menu that drives enhanced unit-level volume. 

 

Walk-On’s Sports Bistreaux is making its largest technological investment in brand history.

Walk-On’s is implementing a systemwide aggregator to consolidate third party orders, partnering with Lunchbox to upgrade its online ordering platform and guest loyalty program, and introducing a partnership with Toast to level up its POS management system.

71% say the ability to integrate with other systems is driving their POS purchase decisions, according to HT’s2 2023 POS Software Trends Report.

Walk-On’s new loyalty program and app, designed by Lunchbox, are scheduled to launch in the first half of 2023 with an improved interface and back-end integration that will create a more seamless user experience for guests and operators alike. 

Continuing with marked enhancements to the guest experience, Walk-On’s is also partnering with BOWEN to modernize the brand’s website presence and streamline the online ordering experience. 

In addition to the upgraded Toast POS system, Walk-On’s is installing Toast Kitchen Display System, and rolling out Toast Go 2 mobile handheld POS devices for tableside and curbside use at current and future locations. 

Walk-On’s will implement a phased rollout across all current locations throughout 2023 and begin immediate implementation at all new restaurants in their development pipeline. 

ShiftPixy Inc. announced the development of ordering apps designed to elevate customer engagement with Digital Food Brands (DFBs) – online-only restaurants that deliver to the customer doorstep.

The ShiftPixy Labs apps will be uniquely branded for each DFB, and customers can easily browse menus, customize orders, add special instructions, track their delivery status in real time, pay for their meals and earn loyalty points all from their mobile devices. The new apps will be available for download on both iOS and Android devices.

“What sets our apps apart from the competition is the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning to personalize the customer experience,” said ShiftPixy Co-Founder and CEO, Scott Absher. “By analyzing past ordering history and preferences, and through a short chat with our brand characters within the app, the AI bot will present a few suggested menu items tailored specifically to each individual customer along with available deals with each order.”

Each DFB’s individual app will have its own unique brand identity and harness a loyalty program, such that each time a customer places an order, a portal to a “mini game” will be activated for 40 minutes, allowing the customer to play and earn loyalty points that can be redeemed for a variety of rewards, such as discounts on future orders, free menu items, early access to new menu items and promotions, and merchandise.

ShiftPixy Labs Digital Food Brands will embrace first-party delivery to make certain the entire cycle of customer engagement is protected and consistent, and customers will be able to reach ShiftPixy’s support team via the chatbot at any time after an order has been placed.

"...We believe that our new food ordering apps will engage customers through a personal digital experience that will keep them brand connected,” said Absher. 

SoundHound AI Inc.  introduced Dynamic Interaction, conversational AI that not only recognizes  and understands speech, but also responds and acts in real-time. 

Where existing voice technology requires wake words and relies on turn-taking to process requests, Dynamic Interaction uses the twin technologies of fragment parsing – which breaks speech down to partial-utterances and processes them in real-time – and full-duplex audio-visual integration to create an instantaneous, next-generation experience. 

In customer service settings, like ordering food at a restaurant, this means that users won’t have to speak in a slow or unnatural way in order to be understood. They can communicate just as if they were talking to a human, receive instant responses, and customize and edit a food order “live” as they go.  

Dynamic Interaction:

• Instantly follows and captures fluent speech in real-time.
• Completely ignores off-topic speech – only responding to domain-specific topics, like the items on a menu.  
• Multimodal, continuous feedback confirms requests via audio and visuals “live” as the customer engages with a device or service – gives firm reassurance that an order or request has been understood accurately 
• Allows users to change, adapt, and delete requests in real-time. Food orders can be customized and changed using natural human speech
• Makes proactive suggestions to the user based on a real-time interpretation of the user’s speech – like a dessert menu popping up onscreen when a customer says “for dessert I’ll have…”
• Users can input information via voice and touch interface interchangeably and simultaneously. 
• Assistant responds with audio and visual output, and intelligently decides when to speak to the user versus simply updating the visual output    

For restaurants, Dynamic Interaction can be used in a drive thru, a kiosk, a smartphone, laptop, or even over the phone, where Dynamic Interaction can give smart, instant verbal and visual interactions.