Louisville, Ky. — Yum! Brands, Inc. has promoted Sean Tresvant to Taco Bell division chief executive officer, reporting to Yum! Brands CEO David Gibbs, effective January 1, 2024. Tresvant, who currently serves as global chief brand and strategy officer of Taco Bell, will succeed Mark King, who plans to retire at the end of 2023. As CEO, Tresvant will assume global responsibility for driving Taco Bell’s growth strategies, franchise operations and overall performance. “Sean is a visionary business leader and best-in-class brand builder who is driving transformative R.E.D. (relevant, easy, …
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Los Angeles — FAT (Fresh. Authentic. Tasty.) Brands Inc. has elevated Jenn Johnston to the role of chief marketing officer. Since the acquisition of Global Franchise Group in July 2021, Johnston has held the role of president of the quick-service division at FAT Brands, overseeing brands including Round Table Pizza, Great American Cookies, Marble Slab Creamery and Pretzelmaker. With the promotion, Allison Lauenstein and David Pear will assume brand president roles. Lauenstein will serve as brand president of Great American Cookies, Marble Slab Creamery and Pretzelmaker. She brings over a …
Irvine, Calif. — Taco Bell has opened its latest Cantina restaurant experience in the heart of Los Angeles, along the iconic palm tree-lined Hollywood Boulevard. The latest Cantina restaurant — known for its boozy drink menu and all the craveable menu items fans have come to expect — sits on a historic 1920s Hollywood property, once a bookstore known as a book lover’s haunt for movie stars, merging a “golden-age” design with modern, digital-only ordering and pickup. The Hollywood Cantina is the first Cantina in Los Angeles County. With more …
Louisville, Ky. — Yum! Brands, Inc. has named Allyson Park to the role of Yum! Brands’ chief corporate affairs officer, effective August 15, 2022. An accomplished corporate affairs leader with more than 25 years of strategic communications and government relations experience, Park will join the company’s global leadership team, and report to Yum! Brands’ chief operating officer and chief people officer, Tracy Skeans. “Allyson’s proven record serving some of the world’s most recognizable brands makes her an ideal fit for the role, and she brings a wealth of expertise about …
Louisville, Ky. — Yum! Brands, Inc. has released its annual Global Citizenship & Sustainability Report, highlighting the company’s strategic investments in socially responsible growth, risk management and stewardship of its people, food and impact on the planet. This includes addressing climate change, advancements in sustainable packaging and creating equity in the communities it serves. “We delivered strong business results in 2021, demonstrating that focus on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues is not incidental to growth, but an enabler of it,” says David Gibbs, CEO of Yum! Brands. “We continue …
— By Kristin Hiller — As the nation emerges on the other side of the pandemic, the retail and restaurant industries are tasked with adapting their store designs and business models to match consumer behavioral shifts. Shoppers and diners alike want to make purchases easily with multiple options for ordering and pickup. Border Foods, one of the largest privately held Taco Bell franchisees in America, enlisted the services of Minneapolis-based design consultancy Vertical Works Inc. in 2020 to create a new restaurant design. The result was Defy, a two-story …
Brooklyn Park, Minn. — Taco Bell has opened its new and innovative drive-thru prototype in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Park. Coined Taco Bell Defy, the two-story restaurant features four drive-thru lanes. A proprietary vertical lift transports food items straight from the kitchen to guests. The drive-thru experience at Taco Bell Defy is designed to be 2 minutes or less. The restaurant was built in partnership with longtime franchisee Border Foods. Minneapolis-based Vertical Works Inc. handled the design of the concept. The project was first announced last year. …
Toronto — Redberry Restaurants has appointed Scott Lewis as the vice president, operations – Redberry Burger King. Redberry’s unprecedented growth called for the creation of this new role to shepherd planning and operations for the 22 new Redberry-owned Burger King locations planned for this year, for a total 146 Burger King restaurant count for the company. A tenured QSR industry leader, Lewis has almost three decades of industry experience. As senior director of operations, he began his QSR journey at Yum!/Priszm Brands where he moved through various roles including overseeing …
San Francisco — More than 5,000 franchise and company-owned Taco Bell restaurants are now using Zenput’s operations execution platform to support compliance against food safety protocols and brand standards. Embracing the move away from pen and paper tracking and towards the digitization of a range of procedures and food safety protocols, the corporate team joined several of its franchisees in rolling out Zenput to its 480 company-owned restaurants. Restaurant general managers and Taco Bell team members use Zenput on tablets to complete tasks throughout the day, including daily food safety …
Atlanta — GPS Hospitality, one the nation’s largest franchisees of BURGER KING®, Popeyes® Louisiana Kitchen and Pizza Hut®, has promoted Roger Wood to region vice president whose oversight includes eight district leaders and 56 Michigan restaurants in GPS’ newly created Central Division. Wood initially joined GPS Hospitality in 2015 as director of operations for the Michigan North Region which encapsulated 29 restaurants. With more than 35 years of QSR restaurant leadership experience, Wood spent 15 years with an area Taco Bell franchisee expanding its footprint from eight to over 70 …