Which high-profile merger was called off? How did 7-Eleven’s parent company respond to a potential merger? What’s the latest on Red Lobster’s bankruptcy plan? And which broadline distributor just made a large commitment to Feeding America’s Direct to Neighbor initiative? Answers to these questions and more This Week in Foodservice.

Peachtree Group has launched a restaurant management division. Under the leadership of Daniel Puglisi, sr. vice president of corporate operations for hospitality management, this division will focus on operating quick-service restaurants, starting with coffee shops. Peachtree Group is a vertically integrated investment management firm and opened a Starbucks location in AdventHealth Orlando Hospital.

Peachtree Group is also in discussions with other coffee franchise offerings and “aims to extend its reach to high profile or high demand markets with captive audiences. The goal is to establish a robust portfolio of high-profile quick-service coffee shop locations nationwide,” per a release.

The new division will oversee all new and existing restaurant locations not within its own portfolio of hotels. This includes transitioning its downtown Orlando Starbucks location at its dual-branded Hilton Garden Inn and Home2 Suites by Hilton to the restaurant management division.

Foodservice News

• TGI Friday’s merger with franchisee Hostmore has been terminated, per multiple published reports. The main reason the deal fell through has to do with control of TGI Friday’s royalty and licensing revenue, as this Financial Times story notes.
• The parent company of 7-Eleven said “no thanks” to a proposed merger with the company that owns Circle K. In a letter to Alimentation Couche-Tard, which owns Circle K, Seven & I Holdings said the proposal “grossly undervalues” the chain and did not take regulatory issues seriously enough, per a C-Store Dive story.
• Franchisee Thrive has acquired Modern Market, per a Restaurant Dive story. Thrive operates more than 190 restaurants across six brands including Applebee’s and Qdoba. It previously purchased three Modern Market units in Austin, Texas, and built two Modern Market units in the Kansas City area.
• Red Lobster is getting closer to emerging from bankruptcy. Last week a judge approved the chain’s bankruptcy plan, per a Restaurant Business story. This clears the way for a sale of Red Lobster to RL Investor Holdings, an offshoot of Fortress Investment Group. This plan also calls for former P.F. Chang’s executive Damola Adamolekun to serve as the restaurant chain’s next CEO.
• Private Equity firm Sycamore Partners acquired Playa Bowls from Tamarix Equity Partners and other investors. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Founded in 2014, Playa Bowls has more than 250 locations spread across 22 states. Its menu includes acai, pitaya, mango, green and coconut bowls, juices, smoothies, and cold brew among other items.
• How big of an appetite do consumers have for Asian cuisine? Multiconcept operator The ONE Group thinks it is a pretty big one. So big, in fact, that it sees potential to open a total of 200 Benihana and 200 Kona RA Sushi Restaurants, per a FSR story. The ONE Group bought the concepts earlier this year when they had a combined 105 restaurants in the Americas. The plan is to open three to five units per year.
• It's rare to see a Michelin-starred restaurant go delivery only for a while. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what Chicago-based Atelier will have to do. The restaurant has been closed since August 24 due to a broken air conditioner and some damage caused by heavy rains, Eater reports. To drum up some short-term business, the restaurant offered a special five course takeout menu this past weekend.
• McDonald’s will make several changes to one of its dessert items. The McFlurry will be available in a mini format, per a variety of published reports, including this one from Delish. McDonald’s also plans to phase out its plastic McFlurry lids and replace them with environmentally flour-flap cups.
• Feeding America’s Direct to Neighbor locker project will expand to seven more communities by the end of 2024. As part of the broadline distributor’s “Helping Communities Make It” hunger-relief programming, US Foods will grant Feeding America $750,000 to expand this initiative. This is US Foods’ largest single monetary donation to date, per a company release. The Feeding America Direct to Neighbor locker project provides “more convenient and dignified hunger-relief support for community members experiencing food insecurity.” Implemented through existing food bank affiliates, the program leverages an online order-ahead platform where community members can place customized grocery orders. These custom requests are prepared by the local partner food bank or agency partner and made available for pick-up in individual refrigerated, frozen or non-temperature-controlled lockers that can be placed in convenient locations such as local grocery stores and other highly frequented community locations.
• Universal City Walk has added a Hello Kitty-themed café. The café features an entirely grab and go menu which is designed to appeal to social media, naturally, per an Eater report. The signature treat features a red chocolate dome-shaped cake with cinnamon mousse, apple pie filling, and cinnamon streusel.
• RATIONAL’s ConnectedCooking earned recognition from Germany’s largest business magazine. The company earned top honors in the Process Management category of the Best of Technology Award awarded by WirtschaftsWoche. The award was given for the ERP Management Interface, which enables data transfer between ERP systems and the two RATIONAL cooking systems, iCombi Pro and iVario Pro, via ConnectedCooking.

Economic News

• U.S. employers added 142,000 jobs in August, per data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The consensus forecast projected the economy would add 161,000 positions. Eating and drinking places added a net 29,900 jobs for the month, the segment’s strongest performance this year, per an analysis from the National Restaurant Association. Overall, though, restaurant industry employment growth has slowed, with eating and drinking places adding a net 10,700 jobs each month, the NRA notes. This is down from a monthly average of nearly 26,000 in 2023.
• Job cuts announced by U.S. employers increased 193% in August compared to the previous month, per data from Challenger, Gray & Christmas. This was also up 1% from the same month in 2023. For the year, the job cuts announced by companies has declined 3.7% compared to the same period last year. The cuts are “following a very similar trend from last year as ongoing pressures have challenged labor decisions,” per a spokesperson. Cuts by companies in the entertainment/leisure segment are up 85% compared to last year.
• Private sector employers added 99,000 jobs in August and annual pay increased 4.8% year-over-year, according to the ADP National Employment Report. This was less than the 111,000 hired in July and less than the 140,000 positions experts expected private employers to add during the month, per CNBC. While hiring slowed, only a few segments showed actual job losses.
• The number of job openings totaled 7.67 million on the last business day of July, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. This was down 237,000 from the previous month. Economists had projected 8.1 million openings, per CNBC. The decline brought the ratio of job openings per available worker down to less than 1.1, about half where it was from its peak of more than 2 to 1 in early 2022.
• Initial jobless claims declined by 5,000 for the week-ending August 31, 2024, the U.S. Department of Labor reported. The 4-week moving average was 230,000, a decrease of 1,750 from the previous week.
• Labor productivity increased 2.5% in the second quarter of 2024, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. Output increased 3.5% and hours worked increased 1.0%. Compared to the same period in 2023, labor productivity increased 2.7%.
• New orders for manufactured goods increased 5.0% in July, per the U.S. Census Bureau. This snaps a streak of two consecutive monthly decreases. July’s performance also beat many economists’ projections of a 4.7% increase, per Yahoo! Finance. Shipments increased 0.9% in July, which is 0.3% greater than the June increase.