Financing

How restaurants can avoid becoming a political football

A Deeper Dive: Joe Kefauver, managing partner with Align Public Strategies, joins the Restaurant Business podcast to talk about ESG, unions and the Fast Act.

This edition of A Deeper Dive is brought to you by BentoBox & Clover.

BentoBox

How can restaurants avoid becoming a political football?

This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Joe Kefauver, the managing partner with public affairs firm Align Public Strategies and cohost of the RB-hosted Working Lunch podcast.

Kefauver discusses a variety of topics, including a backlash against corporate ESG strategies. ESG stands for environmental, social and governance. Many corporations believe that having a strong ESG framework can create shareholder value over time because it can improve their reputation.

But there’s been something of a backlash by conservative groups over these policies. He talks about this trend and how companies can avoid it, if they even can.

He also talks about the Fast Act in California and efforts by restaurant chains to get that act in front of voters in the state, and why this topic is so important. And he discusses unions and why there hasn’t been many efforts to unionize companies outside of the coffee giant Starbucks.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts.

Subscribe on Spotify.

Members help make our journalism possible. Become a Restaurant Business member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.

Multimedia

Exclusive Content

Financing

Why are so many restaurant chains filing for bankruptcy?

The Bottom Line: A combination of rising costs and weakening sales, and more expensive debt, has caused real problems for restaurant chains. But the industry is also really difficult.

Financing

Despite their complaints, customers keep flocking to Chipotle

The Bottom Line: The chain continued to be a juggernaut last quarter, with strong sales and traffic growth, despite frequent social media complaints about shrinkflation or other challenges.

Operations

Hitting resistance elsewhere, ghost kitchens and virtual concepts find a happy home in family dining

Reality Check: Old-guard chains are finding the alternative operations to be persistently effective side hustles.

Trending

More from our partners