News Briefs

Host Kitchen  creator, Franklin Junction, marks the third anniversary of their relationship with Nathan's Famous by landing exclusive license rights for all future virtual restaurants worldwide. The deal also includes rights to Nathan’s Famous sister brands, Arthur Treacher’s Fish and Chips and Wings of New York. 

The partnership has already expanded the iconic Nathan's Famous brand to more than 150 new locations in the United States and Europe. Franklin Junction's ability to translate the iconic American restaurant's beloved full menu to scale, all while ensuring quality and consistency, has enabled Nathan's Famous to preserve its reputation as the world's premier hot dog brand and serve "The Flavor of New York" to generations to come.

“As stewards of our brand partners, we invest heavily in the proprietary technologies behind our Host Kitchen  platform which can accurately qualify, train, and market the operators to deliver the product and service of virtual restaurants to the highest standards for years to come,” said Franklin Junction CEO & Co-Founder, Rishi Nigam. “We are honored to grow our relationship with Nathan’s Famous to our international markets in Europe, Asia, and Latin America.”

“Over the past few years, we’ve been able to grow and expand our Nathan’s Famous virtual kitchen network worldwide. That growth and expansion largely has to do with us working with Franklin Junction, a proven leader in the food delivery business using their vision, innovation, and technology to help the category expand exponentially worldwide,” said Phil McCann, Vice President of Marketing at Nathan’s Famous. “Importantly, Franklin Junction’s Operations teams have worked closely with us to ensure our world-famous menu items are delivered to our guests hot, delicious, and at their convenience.”

Franklin Junction's Host Kitchen  experts have successfully interpreted Nathan's Famous signature hot dogs and a variety of menu items into dozens of locations worldwide, without losing the quality, freshness, and authenticity of their signature New York flavors. Order Nathan's Famous powered by Franklin Junction on major delivery platforms in each market.

Domino's Pizza Inc. introduces its new and improved loyalty program. 

Domino's Rewards offers loyalty members even more opportunities to earn and redeem points across its corporate and franchise store locations. Domino's enhanced rewards program allows customers to:

• Earn points for less
  • Loyalty members will now earn 10 points on every order of $5 or more
• Redeem points for even more menu items – and earn free Domino's after just two orders
  • Members can redeem a variety of points for more menu items:
    • 20 points: A free dipping cup, a 16-piece order of Parmesan Bread Bites or a 20 oz. drink
    • 40 points: An order of Bread Twists or Stuffed Cheesy Bread
    • 60 points: A medium, two-topping pizza; pasta; Oven-Baked Sandwich; or a 3-piece order of Chocolate Lava Crunch Cakes
• Earn more rewards
  • Loyalty perks are now even better, as members will have exclusive access to member-only deals, special discounts and opportunities to earn bonus points!

"We are thrilled to give the brand's loyal customers additional ways to earn free Domino's items more often," said Mark Messing, Domino's vice president of digital experience and loyalty. "At a time when most brands are scaling back their loyalty programs and making it more difficult to earn and redeem points, Domino's is doing the opposite. We want to make it easier to reward our customers and give them more options so they can get rewarded faster."

Marketing a LTO 

From now until Oct. 22, 2023, rewards members can take advantage of a limited time offer to redeem 20 points for a free order of Domino's new Pepperoni Stuffed Cheesy Bread, which is normally a 40-point redemption, in celebration of the product's recent launch. 

Chipotle Mexican Grill announced it is investing in Greenfield Robotics, a company founded with the vision of making regenerative farming more efficient, cost-effective, and sustainable by leveraging the latest advances in AI, robotics, and sensing technologies, and Nitricity, a company seeking to tackle greenhouse gas emissions by creating fertilizer products that are better for fields, farmers, and the environment. These minority investments are being made through Chipotle's $50 million Cultivate Next venture fund.

Cultivate Next makes early-stage investments into strategically aligned companies that further Chipotle's mission to Cultivate a Better World and help accelerate the company's aggressive growth plans. As a people-first company, Chipotle is seeking opportunities that will elevate the human experience for its restaurant teams and suppliers as well as increase access and convenience for its guests.

Robots for Regenerative Agriculture 

Conventional farming destroys weeds with chemicals and soil tillage, resulting in escalating costs, soil erosion and degradation of soil, resistant weeds, and health risks for both wildlife and humans. Greenfield Robotics provides regenerative agriculture solutions without chemicals. Their fleets of autonomous robots are lightweight and cut weeds between rows of broadacre crops, day or night, reducing dependence on herbicides while supporting regenerative farming practices and reducing risk for farmers.

With its Cultivate Next investment, Greenfield Robotics will continue its efforts to build out its fleet of autonomous agricultural robots and develop additional capabilities for forthcoming iterations of its robots, including micro-spraying, cover crop planting, and soil testing.

"The work of Greenfield Robotics to build out a tech forward alternative to herbicides plays an important role in ensuring a more sustainable future for the agricultural industry," said Curt Garner, Chief Customer and Technology Officer, Chipotle. "We will help Greenfield Robotics scale their robotic offerings and explore how their robots can be deployed on farms within our supply chain."

"Like Chipotle's commitment to Food with Integrity, we believe in the future of real, responsibly and sustainably raised food," said Clint Brauer, founder of Greenfield Robotics. "In partnership with Chipotle, we can continue to explore creative solutions to some of the biggest challenges facing farmers across the United States."

New Age Fertilizer 

Inspired by the natural occurrence of lightning breaking down nitrogen in the air and rainwater bringing it to the soil as nitrate to create natural fertilizer, Nitricity has pioneered a practice of creating artificial lightning. The company leverages air, water, and renewable energy from the artificial lightning to produce a cleaner, more sustainable, and cost-efficient fertilizer. The current process of producing, distributing, and using nitrogen fertilizer by way of the Haber-Bosch method requires a large amount of fossil fuels and emits significant amounts of carbon dioxide, contributing to 5-7% of total global GHG (greenhouse gases). Nitricity's nitrogen fertilizer has 5 to 10 times less GHG emissions due to its electrified production and field application process. Nitricity is building its production model of fertilizer on or near its end customers to limit the emissions from fertilizer distribution and application. Currently, up to 20% of fertilizer in the U.S. is imported through an expensive and complex supply chain.

Nitricity has started field trials for their fertilizer product with Salinas Valley farmers, including Chipotle suppliers in the region. Funding from Cultivate Next will be used to scale up Nitricity's production of nitrogen, build out the company's infrastructure, and support the launch of its first commercial product within the next two years.

"We're proud to support Nitricity's pursuit of a product innovation whose environmental benefits are complimentary to Chipotle's approach to Food With Integrity," said Jack Hartung, Chief Financial and Administrative Officer, Chipotle. He added, "Fertilizers have experienced steep price increases in recent years due to supply chain issues, fossil fuel price volatility, and rising distribution costs. Nitricity's fertilizer offering not only has the potential to reduce the carbon footprint of the fertilizer industry, but it can be a cost-effective solution for growers in our supply chain."

"Nitricity is committed to producing fertilizer that is optimized for farmers, not factory production or freight distribution," said Nico Pinkowski, co-founder and CEO of Nitricity. "Partnering with Chipotle will unquestionably accelerate our path toward disrupting the industry with climate-smart technology."

Tim McAfee, a Cultivate Next Venture Collaborator and current Chipotle produce supplier noted: "I have visited the facilities of both Nitricity and Greenfield Robotics and am optimistic and enthusiastic about the impact these innovations could have on the growing community."

What's Next for Cultivate Next? 
Chipotle will continue to provide more updates on the Cultivate Next venture fund in 2024 and beyond. Companies interested in collaborating with Chipotle through the Cultivate Next venture fund can apply by emailing [email protected].  

shiftNOW, on-demand workforce solution, now serves Atlanta.

Atlanta marks shiftNOW's second market within the state of Georgia as the company expanded to Savannah in late summer. shiftNOW also operates throughout all major markets in South Carolina, including Charleston, Columbia, Greenville, Myrtle Beach, Hilton Head Island, Beaufort, and Bluffton.

With Atlanta being one of the largest metropolitan areas in the United States, shiftNOW offers a wide breadth of hourly shift types to support all major hospitality businesses with a high-quality, screened workforce.

"Atlanta is the hub of the southeast and is home to some of the nation's largest brands," said shiftNOW Founder and CEO, David Wise. "We couldn't be more excited to be boots on the ground in Atlanta and start serving our largest market to date."

shiftNOW's expansion comes at the right time as the state of Georgia broke tourism records in 2022 and welcomed its largest number of visitors yet. Georgia's 167.7 million domestic and international visitors in 2022 helped generate $73 billion in total economic impact.

Despite the return to normalcy that the leisure and hospitality industry has seen in recent years, the sector has a 5.5% unemployment rate compared to the national average of 3.7%. The 2023 National Restaurant Association Report found that 90% of operators believed recruiting and retaining employees would continue to be a key struggle for their business.

shiftNOW serves several business types, including catering companies, country clubs and golf courses, restaurants, bars, hotels, hospitality groups, event venues, and festivals. Through the shiftNOW platform, businesses can source hourly workers to fulfill their front-of-house, back-of-house, event, or general labor needs.

Atlanta-based businesses can now create a shiftNOW Business Account to begin posting their on-demand or full-time needs. With shiftNOW, businesses can review high-quality applicants and select the right worker for their needs – all with white-glove support from a dedicated Account Manager.

Individuals seeking new work, supplemental income, or the opportunity to network can download the shiftNOW mobile app through the Apple App Store or Google Play Store.

PizzaForno, North America's automated pizzeria that bakes pizza in less than three minutes, announced its expansion into Mexico.

The first location opened in Mexico City last month.

This expansion comes after PizzaForno launched in Canada in 2018 and expanded into the United States in 2021.

PizzaForno' expansion comes as other brands are adding to automated vending machines. At MURTEC 2023, Dan Mesches, CEO of Sprinkles, shared how the cupcake brand diviersified its revenue stream by adding its popular cupcake vending machine.  

Behind the opening and expansion are Master Licensees Salomon Bialostozky and Jacko Duayhe. After this opening, the duo plans to open 20 more locations in the Mexico City area throughout 2024.

"We're bringing delicious pizzas to Mexico, an underserved market, where customers are looking for fast, flavorful, hot meal options that they can access at any time of the day," said Jason Lowder, Chief Marketing Officer of PizzaForno. "As we continue to see excitement for our innovative brand, we look forward to continuing to grow our footprint across the globe."

The pizza vending machine explosion continues, with plans to expand south of the border with over 100 units in the coming years. The growth begins with this location in Mexico City, but PizzaForno plans to grow into Los Cabos, Cancun, Puerto Vallarta, Monterrey, Puebla, Guadalajara and more.

PizzaForno is growing rapidly and plans to have 25,000 operating units by 2028. The brand prioritizes providing their services in places that would benefit greatly from PizzaForno's cutting-edge technology and have begun expanding into campuses and other unconventional locations. Accessible 24/7 at the tap of a digital screen, this revolutionary concept in North America, offers an array of pizza selection hand made with top-quality ingredients.

Redberry Restaurants announces two strategic leadership appointments: Kiran Benet was promoted to Chief People Officer (CPO), and Scott Lewis was promoted to Burger King Brand President, effective immediately.

Redberry owns and operates 170-plus restaurants under the Burger King  and Taco Bell brand banners. More than 300 new locations are in development.

• MURTEC Executive Summit Expands Footprint to Canada

This exponential growth has prompted the creation of the new roles of Chief People Officer and Burger King Brand President to drive further development of the brands and invest in the people that are integral to Redberry's continued growth and success.

Kiran Benet

Kiran Benet, newly appointed CPO, brings over two decades of expertise in transforming cultures and building corporate infrastructure. Over the past decade at Redberry, Kiran has been instrumental in establishing and shaping the organizational culture while constructing a robust infrastructure to support the company's rapid growth and expansion, fostering a supportive people culture.

Scott Lewis  

A tenured QSR industry leader, Scott has almost three decades of industry experience. He joined Redberry as Vice President, Burger King Operations in 2022. In his time at Redberry, Scott has executed the company's vision and mission with passion, with a keen eye on developing people and a culture where Redberry's Burger King team is providing amazing results.

Lewis will lead Redberry's biggest Brand portfolio and continue to amplify the company's long-term growth strategy.  

Redberry's mission and accelerated growth trajectory are made possible by its partnership with City Capital Ventures. For more information, visit www.redberry.ca