Australia

Friday 29th April was a bumper night for the industry. Domino's increased their Friday night sales by over 20%, Eagle Boys had 28% increase with the largest growth from deliveries, Pizza Hut had their highest ever online sales for a single day and Crust had a 12% spike in online sales on Friday night due to the Windsor nuptials.

Andrew and Debbie Benefield, operator of Mrs. Fields Australia, have been awarded at the Mrs. Fields Brands Convention in Las Vegas.

Pie Face recently announced their intention to float on the ASX in 2012. QSR Media sat down with Wayne Homschek, Founder, Pie Face to find out more.  We put the following questions to him:

The menu has been developed to ensure it encompasses Mexican street food – the flavours, the fresh product and the bright vivid colours. The spicy pork nachos, the double decker taco and the Mariachi Burrito are some of the dishes. There is a kids menu and a decadent dessert menu including Chocolate nachos.

Macquarie Group and CBA Equities will assist Pie Face in its planned listing on the ASX.

The 100 most recognised franchise operators were researched to determine which brand-name franchise offered the best value for money.

The commemorative wedding "English Garden" ice cream cake is inspired by the colorful gardens of the Cotswolds in Central England.

Speaking to QSR Media, Andy Masood, Head of Development & Supply Chain at Yum shared the growth plans for Pizza Hut in Australia over the next 8 to 10 years. Seeing the pizza category as a growing category in terms of outlets and also frequency of purchase by customers, he will be spearheading a national campaign to increase the number of stores to around 500 from their current 270 stores nationally. Most of these will be franchised. Building on their strong brand awareness and the existing market penetration they will be targeting major metro cities first then moving to smaller regional areas. Masood advised that the plan will be to "slowly build momentum" and will be based on "solid unit economics, offering the right return of investment to franchisees". This marks a change of focus and strategy for Yum as more emphasis is put into their individual KFC and Pizza Hut brands following the appointment of a dedicated CEO to each chain.  

There was a time when restaurants and healthy foods didn't exactly mix together. Restaurants, then, would rather offer their customers quick-served-fried menus to meet the demands of their fast-paced lifestyle.

BMF will lead Domino's strategic direction and creative advertising for its Australian and New Zealand business.

Eagle Boys is expecting to sell more than 700,000 pizzas between Good Friday (22 April) and 26 April.

Go Sushi's "Egg-cellent Fun Pack" has been developed around encouraging kids to make healthy food choices.

Eagle Boys, Mad Mex and Nando's all aim to go outside the box and expand their borders in 2011.

CEO Sophie Valkan talks with QSR Media on where the group is at and about its legal woes.

Nando's and Boost are both thrilled to announce a trial joint promotion following the launch of a new Nando's restaurant in Greenwood Plaza, North Sydney.

We talk to Owen Scott, National Sales Manager, Task Retail Technology and find out what differentiates their POS systems and why being an Australian owned and operated company makes such a difference. We put the following questions to Owen: