News Briefs

Shift4 has acquired a majority stake in Vectron Systems AG, a European suppliers of point-of-sale (POS) systems to the restaurant and hospitality verticals. 

Based in Germany, Vectron has 65,000 POS locations across Europe, representing. Shift4 is expected to acquire additional ownership of Vectron through a public tender offer that is expected to conclude within the next month, with a de-listing and formal integration process to occur shortly thereafter.

The acquisition is expected to provide Shift4 with an expansive customer footprint across Europe as well as a distribution network of ~300 POS resellers. As a result of the acquisition, Shift4 believes it will be able to add its integrated payment services to current Vectron customers and products, while also empowering the sales force with a compelling all-in-one POS and payments solution unrivaled in Europe.

“Shift4 was at the forefront of the convergence between software and payments in the restaurant and hospitality verticals in the US. We see an incredible amount of demand for a similar all-in-one solution across Europe,” states Shift4 CEO Jared Isaacman. “With our integrated payments and SkyTab offering, we believe we have the best solution at the right price point. Vectron will provide valuable local expertise, infrastructure, and the distribution necessary to meet the demand. This acquisition is right out of the Shift4 playbook – enabling us to unlock synergies, expand our distribution, and monetize payments for a large existing install base.”

Completes Revel Systems Acquistion

In addition to the acquisition of Vectron, Shift4 has also completed its previously announced acquisition of Revel Systems. Revel has over 18,000 merchant locations across the United States and internationally which Shift4 estimates represents a $17B+ payment opportunity. Revel also has a direct sales and dealer distribution network which Shift4 believes can be leveraged to accelerate SkyTab distribution both domestically and abroad. 

Shift4 has signed a definitive arrangement agreement to acquire Givex Corp., a global provider of gift cards, loyalty programs and point-of-sale solutions. 

The Arrangement Agreement is subject to customary closing conditions and the transaction is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of this year. 

With across more than 100 countries, Givex serves a wide range of businesses in various industries, including 7-Eleven, Wendy’s, Best Western, Texas Roadhouse. 

The company offers robust gift card and e-gift solutions as well as customizable loyalty programs, and a point-of-sale (POS) system for various business types, among other value-added services.

 “Givex has a considerable footprint around the world which will dramatically increase Shift4’s overall customer base,” states Shift4 President Taylor Lauber. “At the same time, their gift card and loyalty solutions are second to none and will add significant value for our current customers, creating stickier relationships andh 130,000+ active locations enhancing our overall value proposition. Similar to other deals we have recently completed, this acquisition aligns perfectly with how we like to deploy capital – adding blue-chip merchants at a low customer acquisition cost while delivering additional benefits to our customer base.” 

“The Givex team looks forward to joining the Shift4 family and bring our enterprise gift card capabilities and loyalty programs to hundreds of thousands of new customers,” says Don Gray, CEO of Givex. “By combining Shift4’s end-to-end payment solution with our value-added engagement services, we can deliver an unparalleled package to both of our customer bases.”  

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.

Tripleseat, an event management software for hotels, restaurants, and unique venues, is excited to announce a new integration with Amaze Insights, a dynamic reporting platform designed to streamline data from multiple sales and catering (S&C) platforms. This integration aims to enhance the ability of hotel brands, management companies, and individual properties to drive occupancy and revenue by providing a comprehensive view of their sales data in a single, easy-to-use platform.

With this new integration, Tripleseat customers in the hospitality industry can now seamlessly leverage Amaze Insights to pull key performance data from Tripleseat and multiple other platforms into one consolidated report. This integration will enable hotel professionals to track crucial metrics like booking pace, need-to-fill dates, and more, all from a single, intuitive dashboard. The partnership addresses the growing need for comprehensive, streamlined reporting tools that help hotels optimize operations and increase profitability.

"Tripleseat continues to lead the hospitality industry by offering our clients innovative solutions that simplify operations and improve performance," said Sam Dewey, Tripleseat’s Senior Vice President of Growth. "The integration with Amaze Insights demonstrates our commitment to providing hotels with the most effective tools to manage their events and operations, driving both efficiency and profitability. By bringing together powerful event management and insightful reporting, we are enabling our clients to make smarter, data-driven decisions."

"We’re thrilled to integrate Amaze Insights with Tripleseat," said Jaime Job, CEO of Amaze Insights. "Our mission is to provide hoteliers with a single-source view of their performance data, helping them make faster, better-informed decisions. The synergy between Amaze Insights' comprehensive reporting capabilities and Tripleseat’s powerful event management platform creates a solution that is both comprehensive and user-friendly for hotel teams. We look forward to seeing how this integration will empower hoteliers to drive growth and success.”

For hotel customers, this integration represents a significant opportunity to gain deeper visibility into their performance across various data points, from booking trends to revenue pacing. This will give them the ability to take quick, informed actions to meet business objectives. By combining the strengths of Tripleseat’s event management tools with the robust reporting capabilities of Amaze Insights, hotels will have more control over their event operations and be better positioned to succeed in an increasingly competitive market.

Cloudbeds, the premier hospitality management software platform, has today announced a preferred partnership with PXier, a leader in sales, catering, and spa management software solutions.

The agreement will provide Cloudbeds’ property management system (PMS) users with seamless access to PXier’s advanced suite of tools, allowing for tighter operational control and enhanced guest service capabilities.

PXier’s highly specialized sales, catering, and spa management modules will enable Cloudbeds customers to automate and streamline essential hospitality operations such as event management, catering logistics, and spa scheduling, ensuring a holistic and efficient workflow within a single ecosystem.

Richard Castle, COO of Cloudbeds, said: “Our collaboration with PXier aligns with our commitment to delivering highly scalable and flexible solutions to the hospitality sector. With this technical integration, we’ve made it possible for properties to manage complex operations, such as catering and spa services, all within the Cloudbeds ecosystem, empowering users to streamline workflows and deliver better guest experiences.”

Jay Manon, Chief Technology Officer at PXier, added: “By integrating our advanced Sales, Catering, and Spa Management systems with Cloudbeds’ PMS, we are unlocking new efficiencies for hospitality operators. Our API-first approach ensures that real-time data exchange between systems allows properties to stay agile and responsive to guest needs.”

Technical highlights of the partnership include:

• Seamless API integration: The partnership leverages Cloudbeds’ open API architecture, enabling real-time data synchronization between Cloudbeds’ PMS and PXier’s sales and catering software. This allows users to manage bookings, event setups, and catering requests directly through Cloudbeds, without the need for manual data entry or external software switching.
• Centralized event management: PXier’s event and catering systems are fully integrated into Cloudbeds’ centralized dashboard. This enables property managers to track and coordinate event bookings, resources, and room block allocations from a unified interface, ensuring accurate, up-to-date availability and pricing information across systems.
• Spa management automation: Through the integration, Cloudbeds users can leverage PXier’s spa scheduling and management tools, allowing seamless appointment booking, therapist scheduling, and spa package management. Real-time updates ensure that spa services are aligned with the guest booking experience, reducing double bookings and manual errors.
• Advanced reporting and analytics: Cloudbeds users will have access to PXier’s in-depth analytics and reporting tools, giving properties the ability to generate real-time reports on event performance, sales forecasts, catering profitability, and guest satisfaction metrics. This data helps properties make data-driven decisions, optimize resource allocation, and improve operational performance.
• Scalability and flexibility: Designed with scalability in mind, the integration allows properties of all sizes, from boutique hotels to large resorts, to adapt their operations efficiently. Cloudbeds and PXier’s partnership delivers a flexible infrastructure that supports complex event setups, large group bookings, and multi-venue management.

This partnership highlights Cloudbeds and PXier’s shared commitment to leveraging cutting-edge technology to streamline hospitality operations, reduce complexity, and enhance guest experiences.

Kempinski Hotels has celebrated the latest milestone on its journey to a more sustainable future with the launch of Responsible Meetings & Events by Kempinski, empowering meeting planners and organisers to assess and reduce the environmental impact of events.

Created by EarthCheck, the world’s leading scientific benchmarking, certification and advisory group for sustainable hotels, destinations and tourism organisations, the programme includes a suite of solutions created in response to heightened regulatory demands placed on event planners, as well as the growing environmental expectations of delegates.      

Core to the initiative is VenueCheck, a meetings management system that provides organisers with a checklist of actionable items to help reduce the environmental impact of events, and EventCalculator, which accurately estimates their carbon footprint.

“We are proud to be working with EarthCheck, our long-term sustainability partner, to launch Responsible Meetings & Events by Kempinski across our constellation of beautiful havens,” says Barbara Muckermann, Chief Executive Officer, Kempinski Group. “By providing event planners with a framework allowing them to calculate the potential environmental impact of their events, we are empowering them to make positive changes to the world.”

As EarthCheck’s global launch partner, Kempinski has early access to the tools and will provide further input into their design and development, cementing the brand’s role as a leader and pioneer in sustainable events. In line with the ambitious goals and objectives set out in the Kempinski Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) Report 2023, Responsible Meetings & Events by Kempinski extends the company’s environmental initiatives to other stakeholders and helps them to meet increasingly stringent regulations around meetings and events.

Stewart Moore, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, EarthCheck, elaborates: “As regulatory frameworks in Europe and the US put the onus on event planners and venues to place more emphasis on delivering sustainable events, VenueCheck is a powerful tool enabling all stakeholders to be mindful of the impact they have and respond to those impacts accordingly. Moreover, delegates now expect their events to be environmentally responsible - they want to know their participation in an event is going to have a positive impact on the planet. Our new offerings equip our clients to meet these expectations head on, not just with compliance, but with leadership.”

VenueCheck provides hotels and other meeting venues with a verified sustainability management framework tailored to each individual meeting space within a property, allowing venue owners to assess and improve the sustainability of their event operations. Event planners will be able to determine an event’s impact based on the unique dimensions and other characteristics of the spaces used within the venue.

In order to participate in VenueCheck, hotels must already hold EarthCheck certification. At present, 43 Kempinski hotels have attained EarthCheck certification (seven are Gold certified, 21 are Silver and 15 are Bronze), while a further 17 properties have embarked on the certification process and are working towards Bronze.

EventCalculator provides an accurate estimate for an event’s total carbon footprint including energy consumption, water use and waste generation, based on third-party audited data from the property, as well as emissions from transportation, food and beverage consumption and accommodation. By breaking down the sources of these emissions, EventCalculator aids in compliance and reporting, while helping planners make informed decisions about how best to reduce their carbon footprint effectively. All emission calculations used in this process follow the Greenhouse Gas Protocol and IPCC Reporting Guidelines.

“Our new products are built on a foundation of over three decades of research and data collection across multiple sectors,” Moore says. This scientific approach allows our clients to not just meet but exceed their sustainability goals. It’s about providing actionable, evidence-based tools that turn the ideal of a sustainable event into a tangible, measurable reality.”

“Having worked extensively with Kempinski to advise on sustainability and award a growing number of Kempinski hotels with EarthCheck-certified status, we are thrilled to be collaborating on this next step in the journey towards a more sustainable future for the global meetings and events industry.”

VenueCheck and EventCalculator are aligned with the recently refreshed ISO 20121 standards for Event Sustainability Management Systems, which means customers will not only comply with best practices, but also stand out as leaders in the creation of more sustainable events. Verified hotels will be able to display an EarthCheck Responsible Venue and EarthCheck Responsible Event logos across their marketing materials and meeting and events venues, demonstrating their commitment to sustainability across all areas of hotel operations.

At present, 18 Kempinski hotels have achieved VenueCheck verification and an additional 12 are in progress. By the end of 2025, Kempinski hopes all EarthCheck-certified hotels will have enrolled in the programme.