Tag: Yum

Latest Headlines

Roadhouse stock hits new record high; Yum shares climb 3% on second-quarter earnings report; and Trump reportedly picks Indiana’s Pence for VP

A news summary, focused on 10 big employers; updated 5:02 p.m.

Texas Roadhouse vs S&P
Texas Roadhouse stock (blue) outgunned the S&P 500 index over the past year.

TEXAS ROADHOUSE shares traded at a new record high today: $47.33, before closing slightly lower at $47.02, up 36 cents, or less than 1%. The company’s stock is up 24% from a year ago vs. a much smaller 4.2% gain in the broader S&P 500 index.

YUM‘s stock closed moments ago at $88.27 a share, up $2.53, or 3% on a better-than-expected second-quarter earnings report, released after markets closed yesterday afternoon. The fast food restaurant giant also raised its profit outlook for all of 2016 to 17% from an earlier 12%. Shares have been roaring so far this year, jumping 17% vs. a smaller 5% gain in the broader S&P 500 index (Google Finance).

KFC: The Kentucky Fried Chicken Foundation will award $1.2 million in college assistance to 600 hourly restaurant employees across the country this month (Portsmouth Daily Times).

FORD declared a regular quarterly dividend of 15 cents per share, payable Sept. 1 to shareholders of record July 28 (press release). The automaker also said it will release second-quarter financial results at 7 a.m. ET on July 28 (press release). Ford shares closed at $13.59, up 11 cents, or less than 1%. The current dividend yield is generous 4.4%.

AMAZON said it will hold a conference call to discuss its second-quarter results July 28 at 5:30 p.m. ET; the report itself will be released shortly after markets close that day (press release).

Smaller noose

UPS: About 15 people gathered yesterday outside the shipper’s Maumee, Ohio, distribution center to protest two nooses (photo, left) found hanging in the building, after photographs circulated widely on Facebook and Twitter.

“We want justice. We want accountability,” Julian Mack told WTVG. “There’s no place for nooses in Lucas County.”

Company spokeswoman Susan Rosenberg said UPS had confirmed the nooses’ presence, and fired the worker responsible when he arrived for work Tuesday evening. Maumee is 18 miles southwest of Toledo. (Blade and WTVG).

Trump and Pence
Trump and Pence.

In other news, presumptive GOP White House nominee Donald Trump will choose Indiana Gov. Mike Pence as his running mate, multiple media outlets are now reporting, including The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. The New York billionaire’s choice of Pence had been widely expected in recent days in advance of the start of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, starting Monday.

Cops and Courts

Idaho man arrested for threatening to kill Pizza Hut employees with a wrench; allegedly claimed food was poisoned

The latest crime news across the world of 48,000 restaurants.*

Crime scene tapeIn Twin Falls, Idaho, 38-year-old Seth Samuel Brooks was arraigned Tuesday in County Magistrate Court on a felony count of aggravated assault after he reportedly threatened to use a wrench to beat and kill Pizza Hut employees he said had poisoned his food.

An employee said she was outside behind the restaurant on a cigarette break when a silver Mitsubishi Lancer “drove at her aggressively,” court documents said, according to the Times-News. Brooks got out of the car holding a large wrench and started yelling at her about poisoning his food, the newspaper said.

Seth Samuel Brooks
Brooks

A Pizza Hut delivery driver saw the altercation and approached Brooks, who turned and threatened him, too, the Times-News said. Brooks then got in his car and left. Called to the scene, police arrested him about three miles away.

Brooks admitted to being angry at the employees and told cops he went there to confront them, but said he didn’t think he committed a crime because he didn’t actually hurt anyone, according to the Times-News.

Taco Bell

A deaf New Jersey woman sued the Mexican fast-food chain today in U.S. District Court, claiming she was discriminated against at two separate locations.

The woman, Gina Cirrincione, says she tried to buy food Jan. 11 from a Taco Bell drive-thru in Pleasantville by writing down her order and passing it directly to an employee at the pick-up window. In her lawsuit, she claims she was “berated” by a manager before receiving her order, according to foodie site Eater.

On the second occasion, March 15, the suit says Cirrincione tried using a drive-thru in Atlantic City, but was refused service entirely.

Her complaint cites the Americans With Disabilities Act, which requires businesses to provide goods and services and “make reasonable accommodations” for individuals with disabilities.

* Yum has 43,000 KFCs, Pizza Huts and Taco Bells in nearly 140 countries; Papa John’s has 4,900 in 37 countries, and Texas Roadhouse has 485 restaurants in five countries. With that many locations, crimes inevitably will occur — with potentially serious legal consequences for the companies.

Latest Headlines

Yum shares jump on sweetened profit forecast; UPS reportedly considering Louisville for new $65M project; and new Jack Daniel’s video is virtual reality

A news summary, focused on 10 big employers; updated 10:11 p.m.

YUM reported a big increase in second-quarter profit on a rebound in its big China unit, and raised its forecast for core operating profit growth for the full year. Shares surged 4.6% to $89.65 in extended trading on the report, which was released after markets closed.

For the period ended June 11, Yum reported earnings of $339 million, or 81 cents a share vs. $235 million, or 53 cents a share, a year ago, according to MarketWatch. Excluding costs related to the planned separation of the China business and other items, profit rose to 75 cents a share vs. 69 cents.

Revenue, which includes franchise and license fees, fell 3% to $3.01 billion. It was the third consecutive quarterly decline. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters had projected 74 cents a share on $3.09 billion in revenue.

Greg Creed
Creed

In its forecast, the Louisville-based fast-food giant said it now expects 14% growth from a year ago; the earlier forecast had been a smaller 12%. In a statement, CEO Greg Creed cited a rebound of its China business during the first half of the year. “I’m particularly pleased with the continued sales momentum at KFC China, which delivered better-than-expected same-store sales growth of 3% (MarketWatch and press release).

UPS is reportedly considering Louisville for a new $65 million 180,000-square-foot vehicle packaging facility with automated sorting equipment. But the shipper also is eyeing Jacksonville, Fla.; Nashville, Tenn., and Miami-Dade County. The project emerged in an application UPS filed with Miami-Dade seeking tax incentives to locate it in the northwest part of the county (Atlanta Business Chronicle). UPS is Louisville’s biggest private employer, with 22,000 workers at its Louisville International Airport hub.

AMAZON has passed an important threshold for invented holidays: Continue reading “Yum shares jump on sweetened profit forecast; UPS reportedly considering Louisville for new $65M project; and new Jack Daniel’s video is virtual reality” →

Just Tweets

The lucky groom-to-be is a 16-year-old photographer in Orem, Utah, and Taco Bell interviewed him.

Question: What inspired you to propose?

Answer: One day I came across my mom’s wedding veil and just thought, “You know what would be a crazy idea? To see if I could pull off getting engaged to a Doritos Locos Taco.” I asked her if I could borrow it and she said, “Sure, as long as you keep it clean.”

Latest Headlines

Taco Bell to open flagship Cantina on Las Vegas Strip; Pizza Hut launches a chatbot ordering system; and Humana stock edges higher, breaking downward spiral

A news summary, focused on 10 big employers; updated 5:34 p.m.

Taco_Bell_Las_Vegas_Flagship_Restaurant
Artist’s rendering shows new two-story Las Vegas restaurant.

TACO BELL this afternoon announced plans to build a two-story 24-hour flagship Cantina in Las Vegas right on the Strip at East Harmon Avenue, across from CityCenter and The Cosmopolitan Hotel; it’s expected to open this fall and will be the third in the growing Cantina division. Like other Cantinas, the Las Vegas restaurant will serve alcohol, including beer and Twisted Freezes slushies. Taco Bell introduced the Cantina concept last year with two urban locations, in a bid to draw younger diners with a more tech-focused ordering system and design. Of the 2,000 Taco Bell restaurants planned to be built by 2022, 200 will be urban locations, a typically underrepresented geography for the brand (press release).

Cantina debuted in Chicago last September, and a San Francisco outpost followed a few weeks later. After Las Vegas, Taco Bell plans to take the concept to Atlanta, and further expansion is in the works for college towns and dense urban areas across the country (Eater). Twisted Freezes come in three flavors: Taco Bell’s proprietary Mountain Dew Baja Blast (blue), Cantina Punch (red), and Margarita (green). Patrons can add their choice of rum, tequila or vodka (Chicago Eater).

Baron Concors
Concors

PIZZA HUT announced a new artificial intelligence chatbot that works within Facebook Messenger, and on Twitter, part of a massive roll-out the company is calling “social media ordering.” Chief Digital Officer Baron Concors demonstrated the chatbot at MobileBeat 2016 during a session on chatbot innovations. The new bot can handle pizza and other food delivery orders from customers who have Pizza Hut accounts, streamlining the process, improving accuracy, and eliminating wait-times. It will be available starting next month (Venture Beat and press release).

HUMANA‘s stock closed moments ago at $154.65 a share, up less than 1% — still, the first up day since news broke last week that the insurer and Aetna of Hartford were struggling to keep their $37 billion merger on track during an unexpected meeting with the Justice Department. Aetna’s stock fell less than 1%, closing at $115.50 (Google Finance). None of the parties in the DOJ negotiations Friday have publicly disclosed the outcome. Humana has 12,500 employees in Louisville.

AMAZON: Some shoppers encountered a glitch Continue reading “Taco Bell to open flagship Cantina on Las Vegas Strip; Pizza Hut launches a chatbot ordering system; and Humana stock edges higher, breaking downward spiral” →

Cops and Courts

Papa John’s worker arrested for allegedly faking $1,300 knifepoint holdup; and at touch of a button, KFC manager foils armed robbery

The latest crime news across the world of 48,000 restaurants.*

Crime scene tapeIn Deland, Fla., about 41 miles north of Orlando, an employee was jailed yesterday after being arrested on a grand theft charge for faking a robbery at a Papa John’s early yesterday morning, according to news reports.

A dozen deputies and officers from the DeLand Police Department, plus a K-9 unit and a sheriff’s office helicopter responded to a 911 call at 1:30 a.m. from Justin Miller, a night-shift manager at the restaurant at 1129 N. Woodland Blvd.

Miller, 24, claimed he was robbed by a man armed with a pocketknife outside the back of the restaurant as he was closing for the night, authorities said, according to the Orlando Sentinel. He told cops the robber took two deposit bags with $1,332 inside.

“He was maybe a couple inches taller than me,” Miller told 911 dispatchers. “I couldn’t really tell. It looked like he was wearing all black clothes — maybe a hoodie and a ball cap. I couldn’t see his face.”

Justin Miller
Miller

Authorities searched the area for about 40 minutes, but couldn’t find a robber, said the Daytona Beach News-Journal. Growing suspicious, they reinterviewed Miller. He began showing signs of deception, the newspaper said, and finally told deputies there was no robbery. He then led deputies to an outside chimney house where he removed a cement block and pulled out the missing money.

In addition to grand theft, Miller was also charged with giving false information to law enforcement and making a false report of a crime. He was being held at the Volusia County Branch Jail after being booked in what looks like his Papa John’s uniform.

KFC

In Rockford, Ill., a man entered a KFC restaurant at 1502 Kilburn Ave. through a side door at about 5 p.m. yesterday, then stood by one of the cash registers, unnoticed by employees in the back.

Alerted by a banging noise, one female employee came to the front, where she was confronted by the suspect, who pointed a small black handgun at her.

“The suspect demanded the employee open the register and put the money in a white bag he was carrying,” according to the Register-Star newspaper. But she couldn’t open the register because she didn’t have a key.

Seeing what was happening, the manager pushed an alarm to alert police. The suspect, later described as 6 feet tall, then fled.

* Yum has 43,000 KFCs, Pizza Huts and Taco Bells in nearly 140 countries; Papa John’s has 4,900 in 37 countries, and Texas Roadhouse has 485 restaurants in five countries. With that many locations, crimes inevitably will occur — with potentially serious legal consequences for the companies.