News Briefs

Tim Hortons will offer a Tims Credit Card from Tims Financial, a division of the company established to give Canadians financial tools.

The Tims Credit Card is a Mastercard, powered by Neo Financial, and will be available in the coming months.  It has no annual fee and earns Tims Rewards Points, with up to 5 points per dollar on most gas, groceries and transit purchases, and up to 15 points per dollar when you use the card on eligible purchases at a Tim Hortons restaurant and scan for Tims Rewards.  This means faster access to more free coffee, beverages and food at Tim Hortons restaurants.  

Building Loyalty

"With almost five million Canadians actively using our Tim Hortons app every month, it became obvious that we could offer our most loyal guests a way to earn Tims Rewards Points even faster with everyday spending and higher points on most gas, grocery and transit purchases," said Markus Sturm, Senior Vice President of Digital, Loyalty and Consumer Goods .

The Tims Credit Card can be applied for, approved and managed entirely through the Tim Hortons app.

There will also be a version of the Tims Credit Card offered to Canadian residents who have limited or no credit history – like students and newcomers – that will earn Tims Rewards Points and can help build their credit.

 

For electric vehicle owners in British Columbia, Tim Hortons is now fueling road trips in more ways than one.  The company has announced the expansion of its electric vehicle charging station pilot launched earlier this year in Oakville, Ontario, by unveiling six new charging stations at restaurants throughout  British Columbia.

Tim Hortons announced the pilot in February in an effort to study the technology, its usage and opportunities.

"We have been thrilled with the results of the pilot so far.  Usage of the charging station in Oakville has surpassed our expectations and we received many calls with requests to expand the pilot," said Paulo Ferreira, Senior Director, International Strategic Restaurant Design and Building Standards, Tim Hortons. "With more than 3,300 eligible restaurants across the country, we continue to look for opportunities to expand the pilot and contribute to the EV infrastructure."

The BC expansion, supported by the Province of BC's Community Charging Infrastructure Fund and Koben Systems Inc. (KSI), placed charging stations strategically in Nanaimo, Langford, North Vancouver, Burnaby, Abbotsford and Coquitlam to create paths within the province, allowing guests to travel from restaurant to restaurant strictly on electric power.

Tim Hortons offers charging stations as a courtesy to guests at six locations.  As of March 31st, 2013, Tim Hortons had 4,288 system-wide restaurants, including 3,453 in Canada, 808 in the United States and 27 in the Gulf Cooperation Council. 

Milagro, an AI marketing automation platform for restaurant guest acquisition and retention, has enhanced its Restaurant Operating System by incorporating ChatGPT technology to create a more user-friendly experience. Milagro's proprietary restaurant software captures actionable data that allows restauranteurs to maximize their customers' data through personalized messaging, turning data into a direct increase in revenue. 

The AI analytics and preconfigured templates will allow restauranteurs to easily access sales by location, and view top-selling items and employee performance without having to run any custom reports. Users can simply "ask questions" of the system and receive the pertinent data that they need at that moment. One area that will be especially beneficial to restauranteurs with AI is the ability to forecast sales and labor very accurately.

Accurate Forecasting

"...In the next 12 months, the entire restaurant industry will change as we know it. All forecasting will be 100% accurate and allows for extreme efficiency where the AI will forecast sales, and schedule labor accordingly based on YoY sales, holidays, employee's past performance, and even the weather," said Hamed Mazrouei, CEO of Milagro.

AI will connect the dots to extract the most valuable information that humans could not. Sales and marketing teams often do not have the manpower to efficiently communicate with customers. AI intercepts communication from a customer who had a negative experience, will compose a personalized message that includes that customer's feedback, and then offers a customized incentive to try and create a positive interaction with that customer. Additionally, the AI will be able to correlate customer behavior and offer promotions based on each individual customer's preferences to drive measurable sales. 

For more information, visit www.milagrocorp.com

 RobotLAB, the premier robotics integrator that has delivered impactful business innovations and solutions for more than 15 years, has proudly partnered with automation and robotics innovator, Bear Robotics, to expand the availability of its industry-leading Servi and Servi Plus robots within the restaurant and hospitality spaces. RobotLAB was selected as Bear Robotics’ preferred U.S. dealer partner because of its deep knowledge of the restaurant and hospitality sectors and its successful deployment of more than 10,000 robots worldwide. This partnership further cements RobotLAB's position as a leader in robotics integration, and comes on the heels of RobotLAB’s robotics integration franchise program launch – a first for the industry. 

“We are excited to partner with Bear Robotics, a company that shares our commitment to innovation and excellence in the robotics industry,” said RobotLAB Founder and CEO, Elad Inbar. “Our expertise in integrating robots into commercial environments and Bear Robotics' state-of-the-art products make this partnership a perfect match that will enhance the restaurant and hospitality industries across the country.” 

Founded by restaurant experts and tech entrepreneurs, Bear Robotics specializes in automation and guest enhancement solutions for the hospitality and restaurant industries. Its flagship Servi robot is a self-driving robot used for running food, delivering drinks and bussing tables, and aims to alleviate repetitive work so servers can focus on creating exceptional guest experiences. The Servi Plus model includes the innovative features of Servi, as well as responsive lighting, an expanded 16-plus dish capacity and 88-pound payload to cover large restaurants and busy rushes. Both robots are NSF-certified and able to integrate into any service industry workflow while adhering to all health code and compliance standards. Servi is currently deployed in partnership with major brands such as Google, Pepsi, Denny’s and Marriott.  

"We are thrilled to partner with RobotLAB and offer our Servi and Servi Plus robots to their clients in the hospitality industry," said Bear Robotics COO, Juan Higueros. "Our commitment to innovation and quality aligns perfectly with RobotLAB's mission to provide impactful and effective robotic solutions to businesses. With RobotLAB's expertise in integrating robots into commercial environments and our advanced service robots, we look forward to transforming the industry and improving the customer experience." 

Since its founding in 2007, RobotLAB has provided turnkey robotics solutions to companies of all sizes in industries including foodservice, hospitality, banking, education, assisted-living, education, cleaning, delivery and hospitals. The company’s talented team of roboticists has effectively deployed thousands of robots that have provided an impressive array of businesses with a clear path to the successful and highly specialized integration of robotics solutions. As labor becomes increasingly expensive and scarce, RobotLAB helps businesses harness the power of robotics to improve bottom-line and employee retention by reallocating routine tasks to automated technologies. RobotLAB oversees all aspects of the robotics integration process – from sales, tailored programming, on-site integration and repairs – to ensure businesses can access and understand solutions that will dramatically improve their performance. To improve the availability of robotics access nationwide, RobotLAB recently launched a first-of-its-kind robotics integration franchise opportunity in 40 U.S. states, with the remainder set to clear before the end of 2023. 

INTELITY®, provider of hospitality’s leading guest experience and staff management platform, announced it will highlight exciting updates to its cloud-based platform, including mobile feature set enhancements, enterprise brand-level and API utilization examples, and the latest on Platform R5, during the annual Hospitality Industry Technology Exposition and Conference, HITEC®, from June 26–29, 2023, at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

HITEC, the world’s largest hospitality technology conference, combines expert-led education with an unparalleled exposition to showcase the industry’s top tech products and services. Produced by Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals, HFTP®, a global nonprofit hospitality association, the event offers attendees essential education, access to top industry experts, and the resources to improve hotel operations and guest experiences.

“HITEC is the one time of the year where you can hear directly from the individual experts who are in the midst of planning strategy for the most significant hotel companies from across the world,” said Frank Wolfe, HFTP’s CEO. “We've seen increased popularity this year for a variety of reasons. But a major reason is that the industry can count on HFTP to deliver on its promise to help change the industry for the better. As a nonprofit organization, HFTP works to make our stakeholders’ jobs and professions better.”

During the four-day event, INTELITY will showcase the latest updates to the platform, including enhancements to its mobile check-in process with shared and multi-room digital keys, along with simplified ticketing for operations and IT team members. Additionally, INTELITY will showcase its latest platform APIs, offering customers the ability to connect the INTELITY platform’s leading features and integrations to customer-owned apps. The INTELITY platform continues to offer hotels, resorts, and casinos the broadest range of digital guest experience features. This includes customizable, guest-facing branded mobile apps with full mobile check-in, mobile check-out, ID capture and verification, health and safety checks, payments, and keyless entry capabilities, as well as drive non-room revenue and provide a full contactless guest experience. INTELITY’s smart-room tablets allow guests to digitally order in-room dining, adjust in-room temperature and lighting controls, review hotel compendiums, and more. Additionally, the platform includes INTELITY’s Guest Experience Management System, or GEMS®, a robust back-of-house ticketing and operations solution. Featuring more than 100 certified integrations with industry-leading systems, including PMS, POS, in-room controls, spa management, and more, INTELITY provides an extensive suite of solutions for independent and enterprise-level operators.

“Each year, HITEC brings together the top experts and technology in hospitality to move the industry forward, and INTELITY is excited to once again be attending this important event,” said Robert Stevenson, INTELITY CEO. “INTELITY is at the forefront of offering scalable guest and staff-facing solutions to increase non-room revenue and create an enhanced contactless guest experience for its hotel partners. We can’t wait to connect with industry colleagues and showcase our latest platform developments to key decision-makers.”

To experience the INTELITY Platform R5 at HITEC 2023 firsthand, visit booth #2106 or schedule a meeting during the show, www.intelity.com/hitec/.

Intuitive AI launched Oscar Pocket to help make the recycling of popular brands accessible and intuitive. With this announcement, Intuitive AI has launched the beta version of Oscar Pocket for consumers and is inviting brands to collaborate so they can start making an immediate impact on global waste reduction.

The global waste management market was valued at $1.6 trillion in 2020, and Intuitive estimates that it costs global enterprises $300 billion largely due to ever-changing regulations, packaging materials, and lack of measurement tools to track how much is generated.

Now What? 

It also has arguably never been more confusing for consumers to know how to sort their trash properly. When someone visits a coffee shop, which bin should their empty cup go into? It's estimated that less than 30 percent of people actually sort it correctly since just over 2 percent of waste is being recycled globally in part due to wish-cycling, when people just chuck it in any of the bins, assuming someone else will eventually sort it to its proper place. This rarely happens, and it only makes waste management more difficult for the business.

Oscar Pocket builds on Intuitive AI's Oscar Platform by augmenting its real-time trash detection capabilities with generative AI that is capable of recognizing a product and providing a simple and creative answer on how to properly dispose of it. By clarifying how the trash should be sorted before the object is thrown away, Intuitive AI eliminates the guesswork. Intuitive will also be enabling a quick recognition feature so people can learn where an item goes just by using their phone's camera and Oscar Pocket would reward people the more they use it.

"Waste minimization extends to every stage of our operations – from what we purchase and serve to our overall dining and guest experience," said Hugo Henri, Head of International Technology Innovation at Aramark. "Thanks to our partnership with Intuitive AI, and their Oscar Platform, we're reducing our environmental footprint, demonstrating our commitment to sustainability while creating a fun and exciting experience for our clients across six countries in North America, Europe, Asia, and South America."

Intuitive AI was founded in 2019 by Murad and Vivek Vyas with the goal to tackle the global waste crisis. The company has since grown to have more than 80 Fortune 500 customers across multiple industries in North America, Europe, APAC, and LATAM.

Visit Oscar Pocket's website to get early access now. The company will launch the full version of the product in the coming weeks.