Atlanta — FOCUS Brands® has promoted Paul Macaluso to president of McAlister’s Deli®, a leading fast-casual restaurant chain.
“By leveraging his extensive restaurant experience, keen consumer insights knowledge and strategic marketing and operating skills Paul will continue to identify and execute against key growth drivers for McAlister’s,” says Paul Damico, president of FOCUS Brands. “I am confident he will provide leadership to our franchisees and drive continued brand performance in this industry leading concept.”
Macaluso’s background includes more than 20 years of operations, franchising and marketing experience with some of the most prominent brands in the foodservice industry, including Taco Bell, Burger King and SONIC Drive-In. Since joining FOCUS Brands in 2011 as vice president of marketing for Moe’s Southwest Grill®, Macaluso has successfully grown into several significant roles within the organization, effectively developing and executing new branding, advancing consumer insights deployment, leading high functioning teams and identifying notable sales driving innovations that have helped the brands continue to deliver superior results.
Most recently, as senior vice president of brand marketing strategy, Macaluso led the collective marketing capabilities for all six brands that are a part of FOCUS Brands, developing long term, consumer-driven, strategic planning processes, creating a marketing center of excellence for creative, social media and PR and playing an instrumental role in developing a digital roadmap across the enterprise.
Founded in 1989, Atlanta-based McAlister’s Deli® is a fast-casual restaurant chain with more than 361 restaurants in 28 states. For more information, visit www.mcalistersdeli.com.
Atlanta-based FOCUS Brands Inc., through its affiliate brands, is the franchisor and operator of more than 5,000 ice cream shoppes, bakeries, restaurants, and cafes in the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and 60 foreign countries under the brand names Carvel®, Cinnabon®, Schlotzsky’s®, Moe’s Southwest Grill®, Auntie Anne’s® and McAlister’s Deli®, as well as Seattle’s Best Coffee® on certain military bases and in certain international markets. For more information, visit www.focusbrands.com.
SOURCE: McAlister’s Deli