From Oct. 4-7 MUFSO 2009 will celebrate its golden anniversary, marking five decades of Multiunit Foodservice Operators conferences. The upcoming MUFSO in Dallas truly will be a celebration of this important industry event. But more important it...

It would not surprise Steve Jackson, president of Hungry Howie’s Pizza, if some marginal operators in the pizza segment were forced out of business this year. “We’re on the verge of a little bit of a shakeout,” he says, blaming high...

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MINNEAPOLIS —Ninety seconds. That’s the amount of time it takes for chefs at Punch Neapolitan Pizza to bake fresh ingredients into a pizza that prompted Meryl Streep to proclaim it is the best she has ever eaten. But even though speed...

Smaller restaurant chains seem to have found the formula for competing successfully against larger, national rivals, who continue to struggle to differentiate themselves from one another, according to two recent brand studies.The highest customer...

Last December, the value menu’s importance in the competition for cash-strapped customers jumped out from billboards touting Burger King’s $1 double cheeseburger as bigger than the equally priced version from quick-service leader McDonald’s.At the...

LOS ANGELES —January is typically a month filled with meal deals and discount promotions, but pricing experts are predicting that operators in all segments will be focused on value at least through...