News Briefs

Marco's Pizza appoints restaurant and hospitality industry veteran, John Meyers, to Chief Operating Officer. This appointment comes at an opportune time as Marco's continues expanding its global footprint through strengthening franchisee relations, enhancing its technology infrastructure and committing to operational excellence.

Meyers has a 25-plus-year history of bringing innovation and collaboration to drive change at industry leading organizations such as Darden Restaurants and The Walt Disney Co. An action oriented strategic thinker, Meyers has used data and analytics to strategically streamline restaurant operations and profitability.

Prior to his appointment to COO, Meyers served as Marco's SVP of Finance & Business Intelligence. In his new role, Meyers oversees a diverse team in several departments including technology, supply chain and operations. With responsibility over day-to-day operations, he also plays a vital role in the development and implementation of new technologies that drive sales and streamline operations.

Empowering front-line team members to deliver an exceptional experience is a top priority for Meyers. "When employees see and act on an opportunity to turn someone's day around, even in little ways, it not only makes the customer experience better, but also improves job satisfaction and employee retention," said Meyers.

"The opportunity to contribute to the Marco's Pizza legacy during this phase of continued growth is truly a privilege," shared Meyers. "Our pizza is special using only top-quality ingredients, fresh cheese and dough made-from-scratch. I am committed to upholding this high quality standard and ensuring our customers enjoy it hot and fresh. Every Marco's Pizza encounter should be a memorable experience for our customers."

"John plays an instrumental role in steering our brand toward sustained growth and we are excited to embark on the next phase of his journey as COO," said Tony Libardi, Co-CEO and President of Marco's Pizza. "John consistently demonstrates exceptional leadership, strategic vision, and a deep commitment to our brand values, and this promotion is a testament to his hard work and invaluable contributions to our company's success. I am confident that he will excel in this new role, leveraging his experience and insights to drive operational excellence and elevate our brand to new heights."

This appointment comes at a pivotal time for the leadership team as they strengthen their strong development support system, which includes technology and tools to help identify territories for expansion, plus support in real estate, construction management, field operations, and information related to financing. FRANdata, a leading research and advisory firm that analyzes the franchise market, reports Marco's 2023 FUND Score of 895 is in the top 1% of all evaluated franchise systems and is among the top three scores for all QSR brands.

The brand's impressive performance has earned multiple awards and recognition: Ranking in Newsweek's 2023 America's Best Customer Service in the pizza chains category, earning a spot on QSR's Top 50, appearing on Nation's Restaurant News' prestigious Top 500 ranking, and most recently claiming the No. 48 spot on Entrepreneur's 2024 Franchise 500® ranking.

Chester's Chicken welcomes Bill Rice to the executive team as EVP, Head of Sales, Operations and Supply Chain. Rice joins Chester's after a short retirement preceded by nearly four decades of experience in foodservice supply chain management, most recently as a senior vice president at Krispy Krunchy Foods, LLC.

Under Rice's leadership and with a solid foundation already laid, the company plans to accelerate growth and evolution. Rice will ensure team members have the resources needed to achieve Chester's aggressive growth goals while continuing to support existing franchise partners.

"We continue to prioritize investing in the Chester's leadership team and Bill is the perfect complement," said Alexis Lobodocky, General Manager, Chester's Chicken. "He brings extensive expertise in supply chain, an area of opportunity that will drive gains for the Chester's brand and Chester's operators."

Prior to Chester's Chicken, Rice served seven years at Krispy Krunchy where he championed a redesign of the company's supply chain network. Notable achievements also included overhauling procedures on issues including vendor and manufacturer selection, quality control, inventory and organizational management; developing a turn-key branded grab-n-go and breakfast program, in addition to several other menu items and product concepts; and achieving year-over-year double-digit sales growth by establishing and maintaining continuous sources of supply amidst various supply chain disruptions.

Rice has also held leadership roles at Intl. Traders Inc./MBM Corp., Performance Food Group, and Kraft Foodservice Corp.

"The Chester's culture and core values like 'winning as a team' and 'fried chicken is fun' are what drew me in and convinced me to exit retirement," said Rice. "It's refreshing to be working alongside some of the best in the industry who are energized about our future and focused on initiatives that deliver the most value to our operators."

Rice took his position in January and has been working against several Q1/Q2 projects including a supply chain optimization study, adding new and profitable menu items, equipping the team with new sales tools, and bringing on additional resources to the field team.

• WATCH: Dr. Gilboa On Why Change is Hard in the Workplace

ParTech, Inc. (PAR), a global restaurant technology company and provider of unified commerce solutions for enterprise restaurants, today announced a new partnership between PAR Punchh®, PAR Technology’s industry-leading loyalty and offer solution, and Attentive, the AI marketing platform specializing in SMS marketing for leading brands. This integration will expand PAR Punchh's capabilities to help restaurants turn anonymous guests into loyalty members, grow their loyalty membership and send engaging visuals and content with personalized offers to spark actions via SMS messaging.

The integration offers restaurants enhanced tools for customer acquisition and communication. These tools operate within a channel that 93% of customers express interest in for brand communication, according to data from Attentive’s Global Consumer Survey Report. The partnership gives Punchh Customers the opportunity to:

• Grow loyalty membership by incentivizing SMS opt-ins.
• Send targeted campaigns to drive app downloads and loyalty sign-ups.
• Leverage advanced SMS functionality like MMS, video, GIFs and A/B testing.
• Streamline SMS compliance with Attentive's expertise.

"Partnering with Attentive equips our customers with more robust tools to engage guests through timely, relevant messaging," said Savneet Singh, CEO of PAR Technology. "SMS engagement is critical for growing loyal customers and repeat visits in today’s restaurant industry. With Attentive, we can help brands create seamless omnichannel relationships with customers, fostering loyalty across digital interactions and real-world visits.”

This integration comes at a time when consumers are seeking deeper relationships with their favorite brands. SMS provides a high-value channel, boasting a 98% open rate compared to email, which is less than 20%. Restaurants using PAR Punchh can now engage with loyalty and non-loyalty members to encourage new sign-ups and actions.

"We’re thrilled to be able to offer restaurants a convenient way to engage with customers, by using personalized and visual text messaging in every step of the omnichannel journey to meet customers where they are," said Angelique Kamara, VP of Partnerships at Attentive. "This partnership with PAR Punchh helps our joint brands unlock the full potential of SMS marketing, further strengthening brand loyalty and increasing revenue.”

In a testament to the tangible impact of this new partnership, Kim Collura, VP of Marketing at Jason’s Deli, shares her experience: “Thanks to the seamless integration between Attentive and Punchh, our business has experienced a significant uplift in SMS subscriber growth and customer engagement. With targeted messaging and personalized rewards, we’ve seen a tangible increase in repeat visits and higher average spend per customer. This partnership has truly elevated our marketing efforts, allowing us to connect with our audience on a deeper level and drive sustainable growth.”

Joining PAR Punchh’s ecosystem of over 200 technology partners, Attentive’s partnership is currently the only restaurant loyalty and SMS platform integration of its kind.

Tripleseat, a cloud-based sales and group bookings management platform for hotels, announced a new integration with hospitality cloud Mews that will help hotels streamline event bookings and planning.

The integration will assist Mews and Tripleseat customers in simplifying the group bookings and event management process. Room block and rate information will be sent from Tripleseat to Mews’ property management system (PMS), and Tripleseat will pull pickup, inventory, and room rates from Mews PMS.

This two-way integration will allow hotels to easily track room rates with room inventory in Tripleseat. Once a group block has been created, the integration will automatically push that data into Mews.

“We are thrilled to offer this integration with Mews to Tripleseat customers. Tripleseat for Hotels’ features, such as the multi-events grid, lead generation, and sales tracking, will work seamlessly with Mews to provide hotels with top-tier tools for group bookings and planning,” said Jonathan Morse, CEO of Tripleseat.

"Adding Tripleseat Software to the Mews Marketplace is incredibly exciting," said Sara Smith, VP of Strategic Partnerships at Mews. "Tripleseat is an industry-leading technology solution that can help hoteliers increase bookings and completely remove planning anxiety. I'm sure that the Mews network of hoteliers will love the capabilities that Tripleseat provides."

Docyt, the frontrunner in AI-driven accounting automation technology, will unveil new voice-based transaction categorization functionality at AAHOACON24. Docyt will demonstrate this and other new features of its AI-powered real-time accounting platform at this year’s show in booth 1625.

“The hospitality industry is under tremendous pressure to succeed in the face of ever-narrowing margins, highlighting the need for financial tools that give hoteliers a clearer view of their financial health,” said Sid Saxena, Docyt’s co-founder and CEO. “Building voice-based input into our platform helps users accelerate accounting workflows and allows them to work in a more intuitive way. By streamlining the bookkeeping process - and delivering tools like the new voice-based feature we’re previewing at AAHOACON24 - we make it easier than ever for hospitality businesses to have real-time visibility into their books to maximize the profitability of their hotels.”

New Voice-Based Interface

The Docyt AI platform is designed in a way that Precision AI algorithms take a first pass at the month-end closing process. However, many financial transactions require the accountant to ask for clarification from the business owner or their operations team. This manual interaction is time-intensive and delays the book-closing process. Docyt AI’s new functionality will enable business stakeholders to review these uncategorized transactions in the Docyt mobile app and simply leave voice notes which are transcribed by Docyt’s AI to complete the categorization process.

This new voice-driven workflow eliminates the need for back-and-forth emails, phone calls, and spreadsheets of flagged transactions, significantly reducing time spent on manual bookkeeping tasks. This is particularly beneficial in the fast-paced hospitality sector where the time of business owners and managers is an especially valuable resource. 

Docyt AI gives multi-unit hotel operators, management companies, and franchisees real-time financial reports, KPIs and unit-economics insights to run their businesses more efficiently and profitably. The platform empowers hoteliers to execute bill payments, employee reimbursements, track & reconcile corporate credit card spending, access revenue reports, track cash & merchant processor deposits, and view real-time income statements formatted in the Uniform System of Accounts for the Lodging Industry (USALI) reporting standard. Docyt AI integrates seamlessly with a wide range of property management and payroll systems, enabling hoteliers to easily shift data management to AI, digitizing and automating the financial workflow, and bringing real-time financial reporting within easy reach.

Docyt Named a Finalist in the AAHOACON24 Tech Pitch Competition

AAHOACON24 show organizers selected Docyt as one of only seven finalists to participate in the show’s annual Tech Pitch Competition. Docyt CRO Darren Genstil and the other six finalists will be allotted five minutes each to present their solutions, focusing on cost, ROI, and AI implementation, with an emphasis on how their solutions benefit those in the hospitality industry. Formal presentations will be followed by three-minute periods of audience Q&A. Show attendees are encouraged to visit room W224 on April 4 at 5:00 pm to watch the competition live.

Visit Docyt at AAHOACON24 in booth #1625. To learn more about Docyt and schedule a free demo, please contact us. Visit www.docyt.com to learn more about the company’s AI-driven accounting automation platform, and follow Docyt on LinkedIn to stay up to date on the company’s latest news.