Pershing Square Holdings, the hedge fund led by the billionaire Bill Ackman, delivered a strong performance in the first quarter of 2019.Its digital sales doubled y-o-y to almost 16% of overall sales coupled by a strong delivery strategy that has further increased sales and improved margins. The hedge fund thinks that Chipotle is on a path to transformation that will expand its footprint and astounding growth in sales and profits in the future. Restaurant Brands was the second best performer of the fund whose unit count expanded by more than 5% and EBITDA grew by 6%. On the other hand, Starbucks grew 7% in Q1 opening another 30,000 stores globally.

This is not so much of a secret, as restaurants have started adding these items with a fun nickname that takes on a new level of appeal among customers. Consumer behavior experts believe that people love secrets as they make them feel powerful and superior that the usual mass.Here are some examples of restaurants taking the hint: Starbucks’ (SBUX) ‘Dragon Drink’ that basically replaces water with coconut milk in the much popular pink colored Strawberry Acai Refreshers.  McDonald’s (MCD) Triple Breakfast Stacks that became popular after customers tweaked traditional menu items to build the super-sized sandwiches.

It's rumored that American coffee giant Starbucks garnered an estimated $2.3 billion in free advertising when a similar looking coffee cup was spotted in one of the episodes of the HBO fantasy epic ‘Game of Thrones.'It was later revealed, however, that it was just a craft services cup! Close viewers could easily spot a cup incongruous to the setting of the drama and though the label was muddled in the show, within hours the speculation that it could be a Starbucks cup went viral on social media. Following this coffee cup hullabaloo, analysts tallied 10,627 mentions of Starbucks coffee and ‘Game of Thrones’ together across different online, TV and radio broadcasts across the world.

Starbucks’ Chinese rival, Luckin Coffee, is all set to take its rivalry with Starbucks to the next level as it filed for an IPO with the U.S. Securities and Exchange on Monday. The company expects to raise $586.5 million in its initial public offering which implies an estimated offer of 34.5 million American depository shares (ADS) priced between $15 and $17 per ADS with each ADS representing eight Class A shares. The coffee maker has been expanding rapidly with currently 2,370 stores in 28 Chinese cities and a plan to open another 2,500 stores by the end of this year in an ambition to replace Starbucks as the go-to coffee shop. Coffee consumption in China has doubled to 8.7 billion cups last year from 4.4 billion in 2013 and is anticipated to rise to 15.5 billion cups by 2023.The Chinese coffee maker is rooting on this increase in consumption. Further, Luckin’s app also has the option of ordering food and beverages outside coffee.

Shake Shack beat expectations on sales growth and revenue for the first quarter, and raised its guidance for the remainder of the year.  The casual restaurant chain reported adjusted earnings of 13 cents a share, in line with analysts’ estimates.The company now expects full-year same-store sales growth of 1% to 2%, up from the previous projection of 0% to 1% growth. CEO Randy Garutti said that the company is expecting to open 36 to 40 new company-owned Shacks, alongwith 16 to 18 net new licensed Shacks for its international consumers particularly in Asia and its new markets of mainland China, Singapore, the Philippines and Mexico. 

Worldwide same-store sales for the quarter increased +4% year-over-year (compared to analysts’ expectation of +2.7%).Among the restaurants owned by the company, Pizza Hut’s same-store sales broke even (compared to analysts’ expected +0.4%), Taco Bell’s grew +4% (compared to analysts’ expected +4.6%) and KFC’s increased +5% (compared to analysts’ expected +3%). CEO Greg Creed credited the quarter’s strengths largely to the KFC division and Taco Bell U.S.

McDonald's Corp. reported first-quarter results that came in better than expected and helped lift shares higher by nearly 3 percent. Read more...

Chipotle Mexican Grill’s first fiscal quarter report reveals estimate-beating results with net income coming at $88.1 million, or $3.13 per share, up from $59.4 million, or $2.13 per share a year earlier. Other key highlights of the quarter include: $3.40 adjusted earnings per share versus expected $3.01, revenue at $1.31 billion versus expected $1.27 billion, same-store sales growth of 9.9% versus expected 7.29%, 13.9% rise of net sales to $1.31 billion versus expected $1.27 billion, and 100.7% rise of digital sales growth during the quarter accounting for 15.7% of total sales. Another key highlight of the quarter includes the success of Chipotle’s points-based loyalty program that crossed 1 million subscriptions a week after its launch in March.However, the loyalty program is only one part of the company’s digital strategy as it partnered with a third-party delivery service called DoorDarsh that saw customer retention even after the promotion ended. For the fifth consecutive

McDonald’s is teaming up with AARP and the AARP Foundation to hire more older workers.Read More...

China’s Luckin Coffee on Monday filed for an initial public offering with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Read More...

In partnership with environmental charity Hubbub, coffee giant Starbucks is launching a £1 million ($1.3 million) recycling program across the U.K. for paper coffee cups. The partnership called the ‘The Cup Fund’ will support at least 10 large-scale recycling initiatives.The paper cups traditionally used for selling coffee cannot be recycled with ordinary paper and cardboard due to a plastic lining that prevents hot drinks from leaking. Hubbub in a press release on Thursday noted that more recycling points specifically for paper coffee cups were needed, as well as clearer communication to help the public recycle more effectively. The fund is open to applications from a range of organizations including local authorities, recycling companies and property owners. Starbucks is also trying to find an alternative to plastic for future cups and will begin trialling in London next year.

Domino’s Pizza shares jumped almost +4% on Wednesday, following a rating upgrade from a Morgan Stanley analyst. Morgan Stanley analyst John Glass raised his rating on the pizza chain company to overweight from equal weight citing "attractive valuation relative to slower-growing peers."  Glass also raised his price target on the stock to $283 from $268. The current consensus estimates of Domino’s same-store sales growth is in the range of 2%-3% for the next two years, compared to the 5%-6% growth over the preceding two years.

With the company planning to make breakfast a bigger chunk of its sales, Panera is trying to appeal to time-sensitive customers who are juggling busy schedules and long commutes. Usually Panera’s business effectively starts after 11a.m., but the company wants to focus on breakfast dining by offering different early-morning options with speed and convenience and light on quality. In addition to the breakfast sandwiches started last year, the company will now sell wraps as the ultimate on-the-go portable breakfast food. Panera is also diversifying its coffee offerings, outside its usual self-serve drip coffee, with new light and dark roasts to compete with more established coffee brewers like Starbucks (SBUX).In fact, it will grind its beans within the shops so that customers can witness the brewing process. To further boost its breakfast sales, Panera has already rolled out a function on its app that allows customers to conveniently reorder their favorite breakfast items. The compa

Chipotle Mexican Grill  shares fell -1.2% Thursday, following a downgrade by Jefferies analysts. The analysts at Jefferies lowered their rating on Chipotle to hold from buy, as they anticipate that the stock may have reached its full valuation after rallying almost 70% year-to-date. "Although the company reached an impressive 1 million rewards members in barely 10 days, we think this key driver, along with the company's powerful digital drivers are now being better understood and discounted in the stock," Jefferies analyst Andy Barish said in a note to investors. Jefferies raised its price target on Chipotle stock to $700 from $600.

Starbucks shares slid around -1.2% in pre-market Monday, following a downgrade by a UBS analyst. Analyst Dennis Geiger lowered rating on the coffeehouse-chain’s stock to “neutral” from “buy”.However, he bumped up his price target on the stock to $78 a share from $72, owing to the company's $2 billion share buyback program and a modest increase in its fiscal 2020 earnings per share estimate. But he cautioned against what he perceives are risks from "downside to more elevated sales/earnings expectations as an offset.

After a hiatus of 20 years, fast food giant McDonalds has returned to deal-making with back to back investments in technology. In a recent announcement, the company confirmed its acquisition of personalized data start up Dynamic Yield followed by a minority stake in mobile app vendor Plexure, which powers its mobile app in 48 countries outside of the U.S. Both deals are fairly small relative to McDonald's overall size, with its total market value of $143.73 billion. But both deals are in-line with the company’s strategy to acquire capabilities through third parties and avoiding costs of building them internally.Also, the company has a poor reputation in terms of its order accuracy and pace of delivery. This current investment might be considered McDonald’s initiation into the tech world.

McDonald’s is buying a 9.9% stake – amounting to 13.8 million shares - in New Zealand-based mobile software maker Plexure, for about $5 million. The deal is expected to allow McDonald's to expand its access to Plexure’s products and services for better customer targeting and functionality among other aspects to boost business.Plexure already provides a global app for discount vouchers and loyalty offers to McDonald's customers in 48 countries outside the U.S. and other markets, including Japan and Italy. The news comes close on the heels of the fast food chain’s another major tech investment.

With subscription services emerging as the new mantra across different industries to lure customers, Restaurant Brands International’s Burger King on Thursday announced the launch of its $5 monthly coffee subscription plan to build brand loyalty. According to the company, the coffee subscription program would be run through its app and is likely to get customers into their stores in the morning to check out their other breakfast offerings. With the battle between the fast food restaurants like Burger King, McDonald’s and Dunkin’ heating up in recent times for a greater share of the early morning customers, Burger King seems to win the first round with its innovative coffee subscription program. Furthermore, the company also introduced its own brand of coffee following the footsteps of its arch rival McDonald’s, who had recently launched McCafe.The company has also been investing in digital across all of its portfolio.

Gunning for its biggest deal in nearly two decades, McDonald’s on Monday announced its plan to acquire Israeli personalization and decision logic technology company, Dynamic Yield. The acquisition is in line with the company’s recent push towards technology across its different U.S. locations, as the company tries to come to terms with the digital revolution. According to the company, McDonald’s is one of the pioneers within its industry space to integrate decision technology into the customer point of sale at a brick and mortar location.The acquisition is likely to help the company by changing digital drive-thru menus based on different factors like weather conditions and the current restaurant traffic. Although the financial details of the deal are yet to be confirmed by either company, according to sources close to the deal McDonald’s is likely to pay more than $300 million - its biggest acquisition in two decades. In 2019, according to the company, it is likely s

Ahead of its annual shareholders meeting on Wednesday, Starbucks announced it would target two areas: food start-ups and improving its in-store experience to achieve future growth. The company announced that it plans to invest $100 million in a new venture fund with Valor Equity Partners, which has previously invested in Tesla and SpaceX. Over the last couple of years, investing in start-ups had become increasingly popular amongst the different food companies owing to the rapidly changing taste of customers. Faced by a similar issue, this investment provides Starbucks a window of opportunity to achieve future growth as it tries to address less customer footfall for its calorie-heavy Frappucinos.Adopting a similar strategy, struggling food giant Kraft Heinz launched its own fund in October, following the example of Big Food rivals Campbell Soup, Kellogg and General Mills. Further the Seattle-based coffee giant announced that starting this summer, the company would focus on impr