FOODSERVICE NEWS

Friendly’s Opens First Express Restaurant
Friendly’s, of Wilbraham, Mass., opened its first Friendly’s Express unit, a new fast-casual concept in Mansfield, Mass., on Aug. 5.
Friendly’s Express speed the average customer visit from an average of 25 minutes per visit, as opposed to 45 minutes at a traditional Friendly’s. The restaurant features a limited menu of Friendly’s items such as SuperMelt Sandwiches, Friendly’s Big Bee Burgers, salads and kids’ meals and Friendly’s signature ice cream desserts. The smaller footprint of Friendly’s Express allows it to fit into a wide variety of retail formats, from strip malls and lifestyle centers. The first Friendly’s Express has an indoor seating capacity of 42 with seating for 32 on the patio.
“Friendly’s Express is a win-win for our customers and for our company,” said Jim Sullivan, Friendly’s Vice President of Franchising & Development. “This concept allows our customers to enjoy our great food in a short time period that fits their busy lifestyles. The concept works for our company because it allows us to expand rapidly into new real estate formats, while offering franchisees a property with a lower start-up cost and shorter turn-around time.”

National Restaurant Performances Declines For Second Month
The restaurant industry’s economic challenges continued to persist in June, as the National Restaurant Association’s index of restaurant activity declined for the second consecutive month. The Association’s Restaurant Performance Index (RPI) – a monthly composite index that tracks the health of and outlook for the U.S. restaurant industry – stood at 97.8 in June, down 0.5 percent from May and its 20th consecutive month below 100.
“While there are signs that suggest an improvement may be on the horizon, the latest figures indicate that the restaurant industry’s recovery has yet to gain a firm foothold,” said Hudson Riehle, senior vice president of research and information services for the NRA. “Restaurant operators continued to report declines in same-store sales and customer traffic in June, and their outlook for sales growth in the months ahead remains mixed.”
Restaurant operators continue to report soft same-store sales, with June representing the 13th consecutive month of sales declines. Only 22 percent of restaurant operators reported a same-store sales gain between June 2008 and June 2009, down from 26 percent who reported a sales gain in May and the lowest reading in the seven-year history of the RPI. Sixty-one percent of operators reported a same-store sales decline in June, up slightly from 60 who reported negative sales in May. Although sales and traffic levels softened in recent months, capital spending activity remained relatively steady. Forty-two percent of operators said they made a capital expenditure for equipment, expansion or remodeling during the last three months, compared to 41 percent who reported last month.

Krispy Kreme Celebrates First Neighborhood Shop In Knightdale, N.C.
Krispy Kreme opened first Neighborhood Shop and Kremery in Knightdale, N.C., on Aug. 3, The 1,750-square-foot store, features Krispy Kreme's doughnut varieties, signature coffees and espresso drinks, Krispy Kreme Chillers and iced beverages, and new Kool Kreme soft serve ice cream menu. available in traditional cones, shakes and sundaes, all paired with a toppings bar.
Cindy Bay, senior vice president of company store operations for Krispy Kreme said the company looks forward to the continued success of its smaller retail concept shops, which will allow us to continue to “bring fresh, unique, signature products closer to consumers, and offer the Krispy Kreme value and experience to new audiences." Brian Little, Krispy Kreme spokesperson., aid the company has opened three new company-owned smaller retail shops in the past five months, and have plans to open three more by the end of the calendar year.   Franchisees have also opened smaller retail locations.

Food Service Latest Word…
Phillips Foods of Baltimore, Md., has launched a new industry website geared to deliver detailed product information, recipes and menu trends. AGAR of Taunton, mass. celebrated the debut of its new private label seafood brand Nautish Seafood with a $1,608.01 donation to Massachusetts based Ocean Alliance. Ocean Alliance is a organization dedicated to the stewardship of the ocean environment through research and education.

The American Culinary Federation Long Island Chapter which caters to 200 food service professionals on Long Island, announced a Sept. 21 meeting at the Melville Marriott in Melville, N.Y.

The Fours, a popular sports bar in Boston and Quincy, has opened a new unit in Norwell, Mass.

C-STORE NEWS

NACS Concerned With Video Slamming C Stores Over Credit Card Fees
The National Assn. of Convenience Stores alerted its members that the Electronic Payments Coalition (EPC), which represents Visa, MasterCard and its member banks, created and posted a video on HYPERLINK "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpcDklZJR8Y" YouTube under its DontMakeUsPay.org Web site. The message noted “We are already struggling to pay our own bills in this time of economic hardship; we shouldn’t be asked to pay merchant bills, too.” NACS claims the video is another example of how the credit card industry is attempting to “demonize” convenience stores by linking them to exorbitant prices
The video features an imaginary convenience store that charges outrageous and unrealistic prices like $9.89 for aspirin and $21.95 for batteries, yet still wants consumers to sign a petition to fight credit card fees.
NACS officials said the consumer petition campaigns which continue at 7-Eleven and Circle K stores — which have already gathered more than one million signatures — were presumably the impetus behind the payment industry’s attack on convenience stores.
According to NACS, the EPC has repeatedly told media outlets that convenience stores regularly mark up their products “by 400 (percent) to 500 percent for convenience sake. However The NACS State of the Industry Report of 2008 Data shows that gross margins for in-store items averaged approximately 32 percent, while gross margins on fuel were 5.7 percent. These numbers are before paying credit card fees, supplies and other variable costs and before accounting for significant fixed costs like store employee wages/benefits, rent, utilities and maintenance. When these costs are incorporated, the convenience store industry showed a net profit margin of 0.8 percent in 2008.

PepsiCo Reaches Merger Agreements With Pepsi Bottling & Pepsi Americas
Last week, PepsiCo entered into merger agreements with The Pepsi Bottling Group, Inc. and PepsiAmericas, Inc. under which PepsiCo will acquire all of the outstanding shares of common stock it does not already own in its two largest anchor bottlers.
Indra Nooyi, PepsiCo chairman and chief executive officer said, "PepsiCo has had a constructive partnership with PBG and PAS over the past 10 years. While the existing model has served the system very well, it is clear that the changing dynamics of the North American liquid refreshment beverage business demand that we create a more flexible, efficient and competitive system that can drive growth across the full range of PepsiCo beverage brands. Our shared culture, strong operational leadership and ability to successfully integrate operations - in this case operations we know very well - should allow us to bring the businesses together quickly and seamlessly. The fully integrated beverage business will enable us to bring innovative products and packages to market faster, streamline our manufacturing and distribution systems and react more quickly to changes in the marketplace, much like we do with our food business,"

New FTC Rule Aims To Prohibit Petroleum Market Manipulation
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a ruling last week aimed to prohibit market manipulation in the petroleum industry. The rule will prohibit fraud or deceit in wholesale petroleum markets, and omissions of material information that are likely to distort petroleum markets. The Final Rule will become effective on Nov. 4. “This new Rule will allow us to crack down on fraud and manipulation that can drive up prices at the pump,” said FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz. “We will police the oil markets — and if we find companies that are manipulating the markets, we will go after them.”
The Final Rule prohibits fraudulent or deceptive conduct that could harm wholesale petroleum markets. Anyone violating the Rule faces civil penalties of up to $1 million per violation per day, in addition to any relief available to the commission under the FTC Act.

C-Store Latest Word…
Monster Energy is launching a new product called Nitrous Monster which features nitrous oxide gas technology. The new drink is advertised as a rich creamy texture and a smooth drinkable flavor. It will be packaged in resealable 12 ounce Rexam Sleep Cap Can with closure technology from Dayton Systems Group. The first launch will come in three varieties: Killer B, Super Dray and Anti-Gravity.

Quick Check, the family operated chain of 120 fresh store locations throughout New Jersey and Southern New York will begin collecting nominations, both online and in-store, as it begins a search for the name to call its collection of frozen drinks.

Gulf Oil has announced a partnership with Sportsline Distributors to provide unique collectible items at Gulf-branded sites.

NEW CHANNELS

Mass. Health Cautions On BPA Exposure: Other States Also Concerned
Last week, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health issued a public health advisory on bisphenol A, or BPA, warning pregnant and breastfeeding women and children up to two years old to avoid exposure to the chemical.
BPA is a synthetic estrogen used in hard polycarbonate plastic food and beverage containers, including some water and baby bottles and sippy cups, as well as in the epoxy lining of food and infant formula cans. BPA leaches into food and beverages and moves quickly into the body.
The Massachusetts advisory is the latest in a series of municipal, state and federal actions aimed at reducing exposure to BPA. Federal legislation introduced by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D, Calif.) and Rep. Edward Markey (D, Mass.) would ban BPA from all food and beverage containers. The California Assembly is considering legislation that would ban BPA from food and drink containers designed for children under three. This spring, Minnesota banned BPA from baby bottles and sippy cups, as did Suffolk County in New York and the city of Chicago. Connecticut banned BPA from baby bottles and sippy cups, as well as infant formula and baby food cans and jars and reusable food and beverage containers. More than 20 other states and municipalities have considered or are considering legislation to regulate the chemical.

Stop & Shop and New England Aquarium Encourage Best Practices For Retail Sales
Stop & Shop announced last week it is working with the New England Aquarium so that consumers have increased access to sustainable seafood available from seafood farms, hatcheries, and processing plants
Members of the Stop & Shop seafood buying team and a New England Aquarium shrimp specialist recently traveled to Indonesia and Thailand to meet with Stop & Shop's shrimp vendor partners in these areas to further work on environmental improvements.
"We realized that we needed to better understand where we stand with our full seafood effort in order to make more of a positive impact," said Tracy Taylor, Senior Seafood Buyer for Stop & Shop. "We want to continue to offer the variety of seafood choices that our customers want to purchase but in order to do that, we need to work with our vendor partners in the seafood industry to encourage sustainable fishing and aquaculture practices. The New England Aquarium has become an effective ally in helping us achieve those goals by working with us and the industry to establish benchmarks and best practices going forward."
Ms. Taylor added that Stop & Shop no longer sells Chilean sea bass, orange roughy, or any shark species because of the environmental concerns surrounding these fisheries. They actively promote items such as Pacific long-line-caught cod, farmed Arctic char, and farmed tilapia that come from well managed fisheries and farms. Stop & Shop is also educates its sales associates about catching and farming techniques that are less damaging to environmental resources.

Innovation Launches Next Generation of PharmAssist SmartCabinets
Innovation, makers of PharmASSIST pharmacy automation solutions, will unveil the next generation of counting technology at the upcoming NACDS Pharmacy & Technology Conference to be held this week at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center The original PharmASSIST SmartCabinet, debuted to the retail pharmacy market in 1999.
The new version of the PharmASSIST SmartCabinet incorporates a high-resolution, touch-screen display, a tuck-away keyboard and mouse drawer, and 46 independently operating tablet-and-capsule dispensers, which count prescriptions simultaneously. The counting technology maintains its industry-leading smallest footprint (3 square feet), highest individual dispenser capacity (800cc), unique on-site dispenser calibration, and computer-controlled, locked hopper doors. Innovation of Johnson City, N.Y., is a supplier of automated prescription dispensing and workflow systems.

New Channels Latest Word…
Tide is introducing Tide Stain Release which comes in three forms: powder, liquid and single Duo Pack that is designed to help lift stains and prevent them from reattaching to other items of clothing during the wash cycle.

Just a week after naming Rick Antonelli as its new leader, Galxy Nutritional Foods has entered the personal products category with the purchase of BeeCeuticals Organic Brand, a line of natural and organic body care products.

Byrne Dairy of Syracuse, N.Y., is working with Valio USA to introduce Real Goodness brand lactose free milk. The product is made using an advanced ultra-filtration technology that moves lactose. The 12th annual Americas Food and Beverage Show is set for Nov. 9-10 at Miami Beach Convention in Miami Beach, Fla.