Restaurant Business Daily

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Operations

Sweetgreen plans to open more automated restaurants next year

The salad chain expects to open as many as nine of its Infinite Kitchen locations in 2024 while two to four existing units will be retrofitted with the robotic make lines. More are planned for 2025.

Operations

Fast-casual pizza faces an existential crisis

Blaze Pizza is preparing for a brand relaunch, but the concept must first solve some fundamental problems laid bare by the pandemic. CEO Beto Guajardo outlines his strategy for profitability.

The pizza chain, which outperformed its largest competitors last quarter, now gets 15% of its sales from companies like DoorDash and Uber Eats.

He will stay on as consultant through Dec. 28 as the company searches for a replacement. COO Maria Hollandsworth will take leadership in the interim.

Moves into high-population-growth states are driving revenue growth that company officials say will help the Chicago-based chain manage through ebbs and flows of consumer behavior.

The Seattle-based coffee giant believes it has plenty of room to add more stores in the U.S., but it also believes that efficiencies can cut $3 billion in costs over the next three years.

The U.S. Department of Labor says it is investigating wage-and-hour complaints against the troubled fast-casual chain.

Parent company Yum Brands said the chain’s operating loss will be $10 million in the fourth quarter, which it blamed on anticipated impacts of legislation that will raise wage rates next year.

A Deeper Dive: Mastercard’s Stephanie Meltzer-Paul joins the podcast to discuss loyalty programs and why they’ve become so popular in the restaurant industry.

The chain’s president will take over at the drive-thru coffee chain for the retiring Todd Graeve on Jan. 1.

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