Buried in the week’s flurry of financial reports were these revealing tidbits about how conditions are changing for the business and some of its star players.
- One out of every 10 people in the United States is now a member of Dunkin’ Donuts’ Perks loyalty program, according to Nigel Travis, CEO of parent company Dunkin’ Brands. Thirty million downloads of the doughnut chain’s app have been recorded to date, and 3.2 million consumers have joined the rewards plan in the 18 months since Perks was introduced.
- BJ’s Restaurants’ store-level margins climbed to 20.9 percent during the second quarter, and that figure reflects a 2.3 percent marketing charge included in a unit’s expenses rather than in corporate G&A, noted CFO Gregory Levin. If that marketing charge was allocated as a corporate expense, as most restaurant companies record it, margins would have hit 23.2 percent, “which we believe are among the highest in the whole casual-dining sector,” Levin said.
- The cost of operating a Chipotle restaurant in the San Francisco Bay Area is about 30 percent higher than the average chainwide expense, executives noted in explaining why they recently raised menu prices there by 10 percent. Prices had been only 4 percent higher than the national mean, they stressed. The higher costs include the area’s new $12-an-hour minimum wage.
- A full point of Starbucks’ 8 percent comp-sales gain for the third quarter was generated by the addition of Teavana-brand shaken iced teas, according to President Kevin Johnson. The new line raised the coffee chain’s tea sales by 10 percent, Schultz said.
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