When COVID-19 closed down restaurant dining rooms, it forced restaurants to adapt to a new digital world. That opened up a range of new possibilities, from simple marketing to ghost kitchens and virtual restaurant brands, but it also created a new set of headaches. Orders now come in from disparate channels instead of just in-house, …
Continue reading “Cuboh Gears Up for Digital Product Launches, Overseas Expansion”
Omicron is the latest curveball to hit the beleaguered restaurant industry, as staff get sick or exposed to COVID and customers lose confidence in indoor dining during the latest surge of cases. As Connecticut reported a 21.5% positivity rate Monday, schools have closed and cities and towns have rushed to distribute at-home COVID test kits to residents, where demand has …
Corporate food startup EzCater Inc. is worth $1.6 billion after raising $100 million in a funding round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, according to a statement reviewed by Bloomberg News. That valuation increase from $1.2 billion in 2019 when it last raised money follows a change in the Boston-based company’s customer base after the coronavirus pandemic altered …
Continue reading “SoftBank to Back EzCater at $1.6 Billion Value in Funding Round”
ezCater, the most trusted provider of corporate food solutions, today announced $100 million in new capital to meet the evolving needs of the $300+ billion food for work market. The Series D-2 round was led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2. It brings ezCater’s total funding to $425 million and raises the company’s post-money valuation to …
“This industry is not done changing the world,” declared Editor Tom Kaiser as he kicked off the Food On Demand Conference at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas today. Grubhub exec Kevin Kearns recalled a year ago March when the pandemic shut down the United States. “Talking about the pandemic, my heart goes out to …
Continue reading “Grubhub Exec Talks Past and Future of Delivery at FODC Opening Day”
While COVID-19 was a boon for the meal delivery business, office deliveries were hit hard. “When the pandemic hit we thought, ‘okay, this will just shift to the home,’” said Zak Edgington, head of corporate sales-western region at Grubhub. But that didn’t happen immediately. “We took a hit the first couple of months.” Eventually, though, …
Continue reading “Grubhub and Foodsby Talk Corporate Delivery During the Pandemic”
At a Goldman Sachs conference last month, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi addressed legislation capping the commissions restaurants have had to pay Uber (Postmates’ parent company) and other large delivery companies in recent months. Short-term regulation is unpredictable, but “long-term regulation is smart,” he said, because it follows common sense. Uber and other restaurant delivery companies like DoorDash are …
Continue reading “Why the Big Restaurant Delivery Apps Will Need the Courts to Save Their Business”
The country’s labor shortage is hitting home a little bit more for one Chicago-based pizzeria. This past weekend, the restaurant couldn’t open because it didn’t have enough staff, according to a new report from Insider. It cost the owner about $5,000 in revenue, the report says. Dave Bonomi, the owner of Coalfire Pizza in West Town, …
Continue reading “Chicago Pizzeria Forced To Close Due To Labor Shortage”
Chili’s and Maggiano’s parent Brinker International is raising prices by 3% to 3.5% to combat the one-two punch of higher labor and food costs. The owner of more than 1,600 casual-dining restaurants will institute the hikes for fiscal year 2022 in hopes of improving operating margins that fell by more than a percentage point in …
Continue reading “CHILI’S IS RAISING PRICES TO COMBAT RISING LABOR, FOOD COSTS”
Restaurants struggling to hold onto their employees are about to hit by a major setback, according to new research. A survey of 13,659 wage earners by the online job marketplace Joblist revealed that 58% of restaurant and hotel employees intend to quit their jobs by the end of the year, stoking what the researchers have dubbed The …
Continue reading “BRACE YOURSELF FOR A MASS EXODUS OF EMPLOYEES”
