INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT

Sweet Tomatoes/Souplantation gets a new chance at growth

After shuttering all 97 restaurants, the once-dead concept is about to open its third location. But can an all-you-can-eat brand make it in today’s economy?

News of Souplantation’s return to California ricocheted across social media last week, sparking celebration among fans.

But questions remain. Once you get past the nostalgia, can an all-you-can-eat concept make it in today’s challenging economy?

Souplantation, which is known outside California as Sweet Tomatoes, was founded in San Diego in 1978. It grew over four decades to more than 100 units across the country at its peak under Garden Fresh Restaurants, a company that had several owners over the years and was even a public company at one point.

Despite deep brand affinity — particularly in California — the buffet chain did not survive the pandemic. In 2020, all 97 locations shuttered in a Chapter 7 liquidation.

But, in 2024, Sweet Tomatoes came back.

The intellectual property rights were acquired out of the bankruptcy and Sweet Tomatoes was reborn, first reopening in Tucson, Arizona — in the same building the restaurant had operated in for years before the chainwide closure.

A second opened earlier this year in Fort Myers, Florida.

And now No. 3 is scheduled to open in Fountain Valley, California, just south of Los Angeles, in 2027.

There, however, it will be a Souplantation, because that’s how the brand was known in the Golden State, though it is the same concept.

Who, exactly, is growing Sweet Tomatoes/Souplantation again has not been disclosed, except to say they are longtime fans of the brand.

Marlee Lossing, Sweet Tomatoes director of corporate affairs, said in an email, “Prior to 2020, we were longtime guests who used to go to Sweet Tomatoes with our families and those are special memories to us. We didn’t want to see the restaurant end, due to the pandemic.

“We have kept a low profile, preferring to let the food and crew associated with the Sweet Tomatoes and Souplantation experience receive all the attention,” Lossing added.

It would appear that the chain’s return has been well received.

In fact, very little has changed from the pre-pandemic version.

“Guests who are familiar with Sweet Tomatoes or Souplantation should expect everything to taste the same or better than before,” said Lossing. “We often hear from guests that it even smells the same inside! We can’t wait for our guests to experience the nostalgia.”

Classic recipes, like the Wonton Happiness Salad, the Tuna Tarragon, Joan’s Broccoli Madness and the blueberry muffins are all there. All three locations will also offer the same limited-time offers.

It’s a one-price format, though the price varies by format and daypart (at the Tucson unit, it’s $12.75 for lunch; $13.75 for dinner and on weekends).

Lossing said the menu has not been cut back in the 2.0 version, and Sweet Tomatoes/Souplantation was known for the abundance of offerings.

It’s likely to strike a chord at a time when consumers are looking for value. It’s also a self-service concept, implying labor costs are low. And GLP-1 users can control their portions.

But, of course, food costs have risen significantly since the pandemic, which has been a particular challenge for buffet concepts.

Golden Corral, a franchise brand, leads the buffet chain space with about $1.61 billion in sales in 2025, down 1.8% from the prior year. That chain ended the year with 348 units, according to Technomic data. That unit count is down from 362 in 2022, and the chain continues to shrink. The chain has reportedly closed at least six units this year across six states.

Golden Corral’s average unit volume, however, has grown significantly since the post-pandemic struggle of 2021, when it was $2.96 million. It reached $4.66 million in 2024, though it ticked down slightly last year to $4.61 million, according to Technomic.

Even before the pandemic forced a systemwide shutdown, however, things were not so rosy for Sweet Tomatoes/Souplantation.

In 2017, for example, the chain had sales of $235.7 million, a 12.8% decline from the prior year. Its then-97 units were down 10%, according to Technomic.

The chain had just emerged from a 2016 bankruptcy. It had been acquired by Cerberus Capital Management, a private-equity firm that had once owned Chrysler. Underperforming units were trimmed from the portfolio, but so was a good bit of debt. A few months later, it was sold again to Perpetual Capital Partners and CR3 Capital.

Then-CEO John Haywood (who would go on to later lead Punch Bowl Social) was working on a turnaround. At the time, he noted that Sweet Tomatoes/Souplantation had a fanatic guest base, with 2 million members of its loyalty program, which was called Club Veg.

We may never know whether Sweet Tomatoes/Souplantation could have turned things around before the pandemic came along and became a deciding factor.

Now, it seems, it is having a completely fresh start.

Where Sweet Tomatoes/Souplantation will go after Fountain Valley is not clear. Lossing said there are no plans to franchise, and all restaurants will be company owned.

“For now, the only timeline we are offering is 2027,” wrote Lossing. “We will continue to share timeline updates on our social media.”

Source https://www.restaurantbusinessonline.com/emerging-brands/sweet-tomatoessouplantation-gets-new-chance-growth

 

Catch Hospitality Group has opened Cafe Charmant, a coastal brasserie, in New York City

The group is also expanding its popular New York concept, the Corner Store, to Las Vegas next month.

Cafe Charmant opened on September 15 in New York’s West Village neighborhood. The 70-seat restaurant is a coastal take on a classic French brasserie, and it’s Catch Hospitality Group’s fourth standalone concept to open in the past two years, following the Corner Store in 2024 and Eighty Six and Or’esh last year.

The restaurant was designed by the Rockwell Group, who imagined a traditional brasserie with a brighter, seaside-driven spirit — like a little piece of the French Riviera in New York. Neutral limewash walls are joined by deep woods and leather upholstery, and it’s all complemented by navy blue tones and maritime influences.

Cafe Charmant is helmed by executive chef Jake Tyler Brodsky, an Eleven Madison Park alum who’s also bringing some island perspective to the restaurant from his time working at Palm Heights in the Cayman Islands.

Brodsky called Cafe Charmant a “sun-kissed interpretation of the classic French brasserie,” and noted that he wants to bring a sense of discovery to French cooking by creating unexpected dishes that tell a story.

“The goal is a restaurant that feels effortless and transportive while still feeling right at home in downtown New York,” he said.

The menu begins with several raw dishes, such as oysters, diver scallop crudo, and wild shrimp carpaccio. Starters include leeks and stracciatella, curry duck pastel, spicy moules gratin, and a couple of salads.

Steak frites, chicken paillard, and a 30-ounce côte de boeuf show off the brasserie side of the menu, while razor clam pasta and a crispy red snapper sandwich bring out the coastal influences from Brodsky’s background.

The cocktail program was developed in collaboration with the kitchen to complement the food. It features lots of house-made ingredients and draws on techniques like sous vide and fat washing to create modern interpretations of classic cocktails. Signature drinks include the Provençal Dirty Martini, Vanilla Garibaldi, and Cucumber Sour.

Catch Hospitality partner Eugene Remm said that Cafe Charmant reflects the group’s continued evolution.

“We wanted to give chef Jake the opportunity to create something with his own point of view — a modern take on a simple, elegant European feel that is familiar yet unexpected.” He added that the restaurant is a unique project for CHG, but it stays true to what the group has always stood for: great food, great service, and a great vibe.

CHG’s next project is the Corner Store in Las Vegas, which will debut Nov. 9 at the Cosmopolitan. Just like the original location, it was designed by the Rockwell Group. The restaurant features an intimate storefront design and the lived-in character of a classic New York neighborhood spot that sets it apart from the glitzy hotel and casino.

The Corner Store Las Vegas will serve many of the same signature dishes popular at the New York original, like lobster and caviar rolls, a wagyu French dip sandwich, and a Caesar salad featuring everything bagel croutons and cream cheese croquettes. It will also feature a few exclusive items and an expanded selection of premium meats and hand-cut steaks from Rosewood Ranch.

Source https://www.nrn.com/independent-restaurants/catch-hospitality-group-has-opened-cafe-charmant-a-coastal-brasserie-in-new-york-city

 

MTY Group, which made a name buying brands, may sell some

The owner of Papa Murphy’s, Cold Stone Creamery, and dozens of other concepts opted not to sell itself, and is planning some “portfolio optimization.” “Everything is for sale if the price is right.”

MTY Group has spent its history buying up brands, and in the process built up a portfolio of more than 80 brands, including notable U.S. concepts such as Papa Murphy’s, Cold Stone Creamery, and Wetzel’s Pretzels.

Yet the company now appears set to start selling some of these brands off. The Montreal-based brand operator on Friday said that it may offload some of its weaker-performing chains to “optimize its portfolio of brands.”

“The goal here is not to sell the crown jewels, for sure,” Eric Lefebvre, MTY’s CEO, told analysts on Friday, according to a transcript on the financial services site AlphaSense. “Everything is for sale if the price is right, I would say that. But there’s no strong desire to divest of good brands.”

Lefebvre said that every brand will be “evaluated for its potential and for the plan we have to make it grow.”

That will likely include the company’s underperforming brands. But it also could include brands where “we don’t have plans or we can’t come up with value creation.”

The announcement came as the Montreal-based company said that it had opted not to sell itself, after running a months-long strategic review process. MTY said that it plans to close corporate stores, and closed 50 of them in the period, as it shifts its focus to more “asset-light” franchising. But another 24 franchisee-owned locations across its different brands also closed in the period.

Same-store sales at the company declined 1.9% in the third quarter, including 2.7% in the U.S., which accounts for a majority of its sales.

MTY’s Canadian brands include concepts like Thai Express, Mucho Burrito, Sushi Shop, Toujours Mikes, Mr. Sub and several others. In the U.S., the company owns Famous Dave’s, Baja Fresh, Village Inn, Granite City Brewery, and many others.

According to data from Restaurant Business sibling company Technomic, its best-performing concepts include Cold Stone Creamery, whose sales over the past three years have grown more than 7% to $578 million last year.

Wetzel’s Pretzels, meanwhile, has grown 15% over that same period, to nearly $263 million.

But on average, MTY’s U.S. chains’ sales have declined 3.6% over that period, and the overall portfolio has declined 1.3%, according to Technomic.

Among its worst-performing concepts is Famous Dave’s, whose sales have declined 13% over the past three years, Baja Fresh Mexican Grill (down 13%), and Granite City Brewery (down 8.3%).

Three concepts worth noting include Bakers Square, Blimpie, and Papa Murphy’s.

MTY acquired Bakers Square in 2022 when it acquired Famous Dave’s. Two decades ago, the brand had 143 locations, according to Technomic, but it has been on a steady decline since then. It is now down to seven locations. Its sales have fallen 28% over the past three years.

Blimpie, meanwhile, had more than 1,500 locations 20 years ago. It finished last year with 88 locations. Its sales over the past three years are down 15%.

A bigger question may be Papa Murphy’s, the take-and-bake pizza chain MTY bought in 2019. The chain has closed more than a third of its locations over the past decade, according to Technomic. Many of MTY’s corporate store closures were of that brand’s locations, which it had acquired from franchisees to turn them around. Its sales are down 7% over the past three years.

Lefebvre suggested the brand has some potential. “Our franchisees who are doing well at Papa Murphy’s are doing extremely well,” he said. “The business model and the economic model and the margins we drive with Papa Murphy’s are really good, even when sales are going down slightly.

“But there are pockets where it’s a little more challenging, where sales need a serious lift for franchisees to be able to turn a good, healthy profit.”

Source https://www.restaurantbusinessonline.com/financing/mty-group-which-made-name-buying-brands-may-sell-some

 

Uncommon Brands unleashes growth for two brands: Fuego Tortilla Grill and The Rice Box

There aren’t many investors willing to bet on small, emerging brands. But a relative newcomer to the space is Uncommon Brands.

Based in Dallas and backed by Crux Capital, Uncommon Brands was founded in late 2023 following the acquisition of Fuego Tortilla Grill, a fast-casual oversized-taco concept open 24 hours that had four locations at the time, all in Texas.

A year later, Uncommon Brands added a second concept: The Rice Box, a “Blade Runner”-inspired futuristic fast casual based in Houston, offering classic Chinese-American dishes.

CEO Garrett Mills said the group is on the lookout for more early-stage brands to add to the portfolio. The group has been building the infrastructure for growth, most recently hiring two former executives from the &pizza brand: Douglas Kwong (former head of marketing at &pizza) is the new vice president of marketing; and Lucious Kimble III (former corporate controller at &pizza) is now corporate controller at Uncommon Brands.

Mills said both brands have jumped right into growth.

Fuego Tortilla, for example, doubled in unit count in about eight months following the acquisition by Uncommon Brands. The now eight locations include outlets in Louisiana and Arkansas.

restaurant
Fuego Tortilla Grill has grown to eight units. |Photo courtesy of Uncommon Brands.

The 24-hour, heavily drive-thru concept works particularly well in college towns near campuses, Mills said. Since the acquisition, the menu has been trimmed a bit, while keeping the focus on big portions and offering value. The chain also added beer and margaritas, frozen and on the rocks, at an attractive $5 price point.

Uncommon Brands has updated branding, with a new logo and digital identity, as well as adding modern touches to the interior.

Mills declined to offer sales, but he said, “At Uncommon Brands, we target and only want to invest in brands that we feel have kind of elite top-quartile unit-level economics, and both of our first investments certainly fall in that category.”

In the case of Fuego, the founder was looking to retire and turned the reins over to Uncommon Brands.

For The Rice Box, however, founder John Peterson was looking for a strategic partner. Peterson is still leading the brand.

The Rice Box has five units with No. 6 coming soon to Clear Lake, outside Houston. Units are also coming to Austin and the Dallas-Fort Worth market, likely next year.

Mills calls this concept “the Chinese takeout bar of the future.”

It’s designed to evoke a Tokyo streetscape at night, with a lot of neon and the “retro futuristic” industrial feel of movies like “Alien,” or “Blade Runner,” Mills said.

On the menu are classics like General Tso’s chicken, chow fun noodles, and crab rangoon. Mills noted that the dishes are made to order, “not scoop-and-serve, like some competitors do,” a likely reference to Panda Express.

Rice Box
The Rice Box has grown around Houston, but will soon move to Austin, Texas. | Photo courtesy of Uncommon Brands.

The new Clear Lake location is near Johnson Space Center, and it will have a unique design with “Pickup Reactors,” or slots that drivers can pull into to pick up their orders.

Guests can dine in, but the concept is heavily off-premises, and the dishes travel well, he added.

Mills declined to reveal what might be next. The group generally focuses on concepts with fewer than 15 locations, in the fast-casual space, with strong unit economics.

“Founder-led is great, but not required, if someone is looking to pass the torch,” said Mills.

The group is also geographically agnostic, though Mills and partner Wayne Moore of Crux Capital are bullish on Texas.

Mills, who previously led Chandler Restaurant Group, a restaurant holding company based in Oklahoma with more than 60 restaurants, said the group’s strength is the seasoned team of industry veterans behind it. Among them are Pete Botonis, vice president of operations (formerly of Velvet Taco and Pei Wei).

“It’s people who have been there, done that,” he said. “We are restaurant people investing in restaurants, as opposed to investors investing in restaurants.”

Source https://www.restaurantbusinessonline.com/emerging-brands/uncommon-brands-unleashes-growth-two-brands-fuego-tortilla-grill-rice-box

 

Sweetgreen hires Starbucks vet as chief people officer

Lauren Crowley joins the brand amid an ongoing turnaround strategy that includes new training programs for restaurant-level employees.

Name: Lauren Crowley

New title: Chief people officer, Sweetgreen

Previous title: Senior vice president of human resources, OC Sports & Entertainment

Lauren Crowley has over 20 years of experience with human resources functions across consumer and technology brands, including Expedia Group, Starbucks, Whole Foods Market and Dell. She will begin her new role on Oct. 26 and report to Jonathan Neman, co-founder and CEO of Sweetgreen, according to a press release.

Crowley most recently worked at OC Sports & Entertainment for over a year, according to her LinkedIn profile. She also spent more than six years at Expedia Group in multiple human resources positions. During that time, she oversaw enterprise talent programs that supported 16,500 employees across 56 countries, according to the press release.

Crowley also spent more than six years at Starbucks and rose to the post of director, partner resources. In that role, she had responsibility for “U.S. retail HR operations supporting more than 200,000 partners across more than 15,000 stores,” per the press release.

“Lauren brings the exact blend of strategic vision, operational rigor and people-first leadership that [S]weetgreen needs at this stage of our journey,” Neman said in a statement. “She has a deep understanding of how to build strong cultures and people organizations at scale.”

Crowley succeeds Adrienne Gemperle, who served as chief people officer for over six years, according to her LinkedIn profile. Gemperle will transition out of her role, but work alongside Crowley through the end of the year, according to the press release.

“[Gemperle] helped build and scale our people organization, and her impact can be seen across our culture, our leadership team and our restaurants,” Neman said.

Crowley will join Sweetgreen amid an ongoing turnaround effort that was launched last year after the company faced steep slides in same-store sales. The chain’s Sweet Growth plan focuses on operational excellence, brand relevance, food quality and personalized digital experiences.

The plan also includes investing in regional and restaurant-level management and training.

“We redesigned our training programs for head coaches, kitchen leads and core team members with a sharper focus on hospitality, throughput, and food quality,” Neman said during an August earnings call. “This is expected to further strengthen our teams, reduce turnover, and deepen our bench of leaders. Together, we believe we have the leadership and tools that get us back to sustainable transaction growth and a stronger, more profitable business.”

Source https://www.restaurantdive.com/news/sweetgreen-hires-lauren-crowley-chief-people-officer/832706/

 

CKE appoints IHOP alum as Hardee’s president

Alisa Gmelich brings over 30 years of brand experience to her new role, where she will oversee growth, guest experience improvements and menu optimization.

Dive Brief:
CKE Restaurants appointed Alisa Gmelich as Hardee’s president, the company said in a press release on Wednesday.
Gmelich has extensive experience in franchising and has worked in leadership roles at Sprouts Farmers Market, Auntie Anne’s, IHOP, McDonald’s and Burger King. Gmelich succeeds Christopher Bode, who became Denny’s CEO earlier this year.
In her new position, Gmelich will be focused on growth, elevating the guest experience, strengthening franchisee alignment and advancing CKE’s “Burger Revolution,” a cooked-to-order platform originally launched at Carl’s Jr.

Dive Insight:
Gmelich has around 30 years of brand experience, according to her LinkedIn profile, which will come in handy as she undertakes the Burger Revolution plan across Hardee’s system. At Carl’s Jr., the initiative included improving the build of burgers, improving ingredients and launching the Angus Maximus, a premium burger platform that has so far “generated significant guest interest,” the press release said.

While she was brand president and chief brand officer at Auntie Anne’s for over two years, Gmelich oversaw growth and recovery, helped pivot the brand from mall-centric locations and launched co-branded drive-thrus with Jamba. She also helped launch a brand transformation and scaled Auntie Anne’s app and delivery ecosystem, according to LinkedIn. She also worked at IHOP for over eight years and at Burger King for over seven years in various marketing leadership positions.

Gmelich’s appointment ensures that Carl’s Jr and Hardee’s each have distinct leadership for the brands, which is part of CKE CEO Joe Guith’s leadership structure to ensure that the two brands have a strong foundation to grow.

“This leadership structure brings together the experience and capabilities needed to strengthen our brands, support our franchisees, and deliver memorable guest experiences,” Guith said in a statement. “We are focused on building stronger brands and a culture where our people can thrive.”

Since joining CKE in 2025, Guith has hired Iwona Alter as Carl’s Jr. president; Ewan Davenport as president, international; Ben Halliwell as chief commercial officer; Danton Nolan as CFO; Mauricio Sirgo as chief supply chain officer; Nick Melka as vice president of strategy; and Cheryl Bowie as interim chief human resources officer.

CKE has seen mild contraction across its system as a handful of Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s franchisees have filed for bankruptcy protections this year. For example, Superior Star, a 60-unit Hardee’s franchisee, filed for bankruptcy in July, blaming unexpected expenses, tax levies, rental obligations and sales problems at older restaurants for its financial challenges.

Source https://www.restaurantdive.com/news/cke-hires-alisa-gmelich-hardees-president/832491/

 

McDonald’s Sued Over AI Tool That Recommends Prices to U.S. Franchisees

The lawsuit said the AI tool collects data that competing franchises wouldn’t normally share.

McDonald’s is facing a federal lawsuit that alleges its AI-enhanced pricing tool violates antitrust laws because it shares nonpublic data with franchisees who might be competing in the same market.

The lawsuit, which was filed Friday in Illinois, said McDonald’s pricing tool uses artificial intelligence to collect data that competing franchises wouldn’t normally share, like store-level sales. The Chicago-based burger giant has said it makes the tool available to U.S. franchisees to help them set prices at their individual restaurants.

The lawsuit also blames the pricing system for raising McDonald’s U.S. prices.

“McDonald’s has built and for years deployed its own information-sharing pricing platform, which draws on data from its millions of daily transactions to set menu prices across thousands of U.S. restaurants,” the lawsuit states. “The result is algorithmic price-fixing aimed at customers who are already stretched thin.”

McDonald’s said Tuesday that the lawsuit is “filled with inaccuracies” and it would vigorously defend itself.

“AI does not set menu prices at McDonald’s restaurants – McDonald’s franchisees do,” the company said in a statement. “Optional tools are available to franchisees to help them make the best decisions for their businesses and customers, but these tools do not automate, coordinate or fix pricing in any way.”

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of a consumer, Michael Thomas, of DeKalb, Illinois. According to the lawsuit, Thomas frequently visits McDonald’s and orders a Quarter Pounder with cheese, french fries and a Coke. The lawsuit said Thomas noticed price differences between McDonald’s stores near his home.

McDonald’s said it has used an AI-enhanced pricing tool for more than a decade. The program determines the optimal price for menu items based on a store’s sales, location and other factors, including competitors’ prices.

McDonald’s said that long before adopting the AI-enhanced tool, it collected data and recommended prices to its franchisees, who own and operate 95% of McDonald’s 14,000 U.S. stores.

“All we do is provide the context of what’s going on,” a McDonald’s spokesman told The Associated Press. “We don’t have any way to affect the menu pricing in a restaurant.”

But the lawsuit said McDonald’s has “significant leverage over its franchisees” and can pressure them to follow its pricing recommendations.

The Associated Press left a message Tuesday with the National Owners Association, which represents McDonald’s franchisees.

McDonald’s has been experimenting with various value strategies in the U.S. and other markets for several years as it tries to win back lower-income consumers, whose visits to fast-food chains have dropped.

But franchisees don’t always follow its guidance. During a conference call with investors in August, McDonald’s Chairman and CEO Chris Kempczinski said only 60% of its U.S. restaurants were offering McDonald’s proposed menu of 10 items for under $3.

“As you know, in our system, that’s not something that we just flip the switch on,” Kempczinski said. “It requires conversations with franchisees.”

The lawsuit asks the judge to certify the case as a class action and to require McDonald’s to pay damages to the class. It also seeks to prevent McDonald’s from enforcing agreements that restrict competition.

Source https://www.foodmanufacturing.com/consumer-trends/news/22975924/mcdonalds-sued-over-ai-tool-that-recommends-prices-to-us-franchisees

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FOODSERVICE EQUIPMENT & SUPPLIES

Hoshizaki Alliance Makes Appointment

The new hire has experience with commercial refrigeration equipment and more.

Craig Hammel, formerly of Refrigerated Solutions Group, joins Hoshizaki Alliance as its director, customer experience and aftermarket support, effective Oct. 12.

In this role, Hammel will lead a Center of Excellence team “that develops and carries out a customer experience and aftermarket strategy across the Hoshizaki Alliance operating companies in the United States and Canada,” notes the Oct. 8 press release. Additionally, he will work to create a more seamless, consistent and collaborative experience across Alliance brands—from installation and post-sale support to service, warranty, parts and replacement. He also will establish a formal Voice of the Customer program, strengthen the service and warranty experience, and grow aftermarket and multibrand opportunities.

Hammel most recently served as director, strategic accounts and director, customer care at RSG. Throughout his career, he has led customer service and support organizations, improved customer satisfaction and operational performance through process redesign, and delivered consistent growth across national accounts, notes the press release.

“Craig has spent his post military career leading customer service and support organizations and for the last eight years specifically in commercial refrigeration and foodservice equipment,” says Chris Karssiens, president of Hoshizaki Alliance. “As we work to make our brands easier to do business with, his experience will help us build a more consistent and collaborative experience for customers at every stage of the equipment lifecycle.”

Source https://www.fermag.com/articles/hoshizaki-alliance-makes-appointment/

Refrigerated Solutions Group Names Two Regional Sales Managers

Refrigerated Solutions Group named Michael Chick and Joe Maresca regional sales managers for its Master-Bilt and Norlake brands.

Chick will cover the Western U.S. while Maresca will cover the Northeast and Canada. Both will support dealers, manufacturers’ representatives, and consultants in their regions.

Chick has a background in foodservice equipment sales spanning 15 years, most recently serving as senior vice president of sales for Winholt Equipment Group. Before that, he spent 10 years at The Vollrath Company, first as a key account manager and then as Western regional manager for food and beverage, smallwares, countertop equipment, and serving systems. Chick’s foodservice career began as a territory manager for the Carolinas with rep firm Swanson-Girard and Associates.\

Maresca brings nearly 30 years of foodservice equipment sales and marketing experience to RSG. most recently serving as regional sales director for Marra Forni. Before that, he spent nearly a decade as regional sales director for ITW Food Equipment Group. Maresca’s resume also includes 16 years with Vulcan as national sales and marketing manager for range products.

The hiring of Chick and Maresca comes a few weeks after Blaine Berr joined RSG as retail key account director.

Brand Snapshot: Refrigerated Solutions Group

Company type: Multiline manufacturer of refrigeration equipment for use in commercial foodservice and other industries
Brands: Master-Bilt and Norlake

Source https://fesmag.com/topics/the-latest-news/23936-refrigerated-solutions-group-names-two-regional-sales-managers

 

Middleby’s QualServ North America Seats New President

The newly promoted individual joined the company in 2021 as vice president of operations, then took over as general manager in early 2025.

QualServ has promoted Phil Mauter to serve as the brand’s president for North America.

In the role, he will lead the QualServ North American strategy and oversee day-to-day operations of all business functions including finance, engineering, sales and manufacturing. He will focus on driving operational performance, elevating the customer experience, and scaling the company’s solutions and services platform.

“Phil is a highly respected leader who consistently delivers positive results. He has strengthened the QualServ reputation industrywide through his mentoring of internal talent and raising the bar on customer experience,” says Michael Potter, Middleby Group president, in the release. “As QualServ continues to grow, Phil’s proven operational discipline, global supply chain experience, and people-first leadership will be a significant benefit as we continue to scale the business and support our customers throughout North America.”

Mauter, a Chicago-area native, has over 30 years of operations leadership and global supply chain experience. His background includes serving in executive roles within both major commercial and privately held enterprises.

Source https://www.fermag.com/articles/middlebys-qualserv-north-america-seats-new-president/

 

Victorinox Appoints Audra Murray as Director, Foodservice

Meanwhile, Greg Stak will continue overseeing Victorinox’s food processing and butcher divisions.

Victorinox has appointed Audra Murray as director, foodservice. She’ll lead the company’s foodservice growth strategy across North America, overseeing new account acquisition, strategic customer development and regional sales leadership. She’ll focus on helping foodservice operators reduce total knife program costs, improve cash flow, enhance employee safety and satisfaction, and optimize operational efficiency.

Murray will report to Ulrich Wohn, president of Victorinox North America, and will lead growth initiatives for the foodservice segment. Greg Stak(opens in new tab) will continue overseeing Victorinox’s food processing and butcher divisions.

“Audra’s extensive foodservice experience and proven ability to develop strategic customer relationships make her an exceptional addition to our leadership team,” says Wohn in the release. “As we continue investing in the foodservice market, Audra will play a critical role in accelerating account acquisition, expanding our customer partnerships and executing growth strategies that continue to strengthen Victorinox across the industry.”

In her new role, Murray will focus on expanding Victorinox’s presence among national restaurant chains, healthcare facilities, hospitality groups, educational institutions and other large-scale food preparation operations. She’ll lead a team of business development regional sales managers(opens in new tab) while overseeing strategic account development, sales planning, financial negotiations, distributor engagement and market share growth initiatives across the foodservice channel. She’ll work closely with customers and channel partners to expand access to Victorinox’s holistic knife rental and sharpening service.

Source https://www.fermag.com/articles/victorinox-appoints-audra-murray-as-director-foodservice/

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TABLETOP & FRONT OF HOUSE

How To Clean and Maintain Serving Counters

Gather details on cleaning and maintaining equipment and tracking warranties following a serving area remodel

After months of planning and preparation for a busy install day, your new serving area is finally complete and ready for action. Now’s the time to get a handle on training, cleaning and maintenance. From stocking the proper supplies to tracking warranties, here’s how to make sure your new serving area is looking its best long past opening day.

Training Staff To Use Serving Counter Equipment
Before opening day, you’ll want to set aside dedicated time to acquaint your staff with your serving area’s new layout and equipment(opens in new tab). After a job is completed by Houston-based serving counter manufacturer Mod-U-Serve(opens in new tab), a representative schedules a demo session with staff. “They would talk first about how to utilize the equipment, turning it off and on and explaining the controls, whether they’re infinite controls or rocker switches,” says Colby McKinney, director of engineering and business development for Mod-U-Serve. “They’ll show you how to properly utilize drain valves and fill equipment like hot wells with the proper amount of water.”

Cleaning Serving Counters and Food Shields
If your new serving area features stone countertops or tray slides, be sure to follow the manufacturer’s guidelines based on the stone type. Using the wrong type of cleaner could cause surface damage; for example, ammonia-based cleaners can break down the resin binders used in quartz countertops. “Our stone is 100% quartz that is fully sealed, so they won’t stain,” McKinney says. “The best thing to use on it is Dawn soap and some water—it usually takes everything off.”

Glass food shields are best wiped clean with a standard glass cleaner, while an over-the-counter stainless cleaner can be used on all steel counters with a soft cloth.

Caring For Refrigeration Coils and Hot Wells
One of the more important maintenance tasks includes cleaning refrigeration coils. “Have a set routine where every couple of months you clean that coil to make sure the system is operating properly,” McKinney says. Mod-U-Serve recently started putting a magnetic, washable prefilter standard on all its coils. Now the messy job of cleaning the coil doesn’t have to be completed by a member of the maintenance team. It’s as simple as removing the filter, washing it in the dish sink, then reinstalling it which can be done by anyone on the team.

It’s as simple as removing the filter, washing it in the dish sink, then reinstalling it which can be done by anyone on the team.
Hot wells also require some extra attention, as they may naturally develop hard water stains over time depending on the conditions of your water supply. “We recommend putting a tablespoon of vinegar in each well with the water for cleaning. We really don’t advise much more than that,” McKinney says. “Oftentimes, staff will resort to using caustic cleaners or abrasive tools like a scour pad, and though those may work, they will fatigue the metal and when you do it again and again for a year or two, it ends up ruining your equipment. You just want to use vinegar and some elbow grease.”

If you’ve chosen waterless hot wells, make it a best practice to clean up spills promptly. “If you accidentally drop any food or spill anything into the dry well while it’s hot without a pan in it, it scorches to the bottom pretty quickly,” McKinney says. “If you don’t get it cleaned up fast, you are going to deal with a mess later that’s cooked on there.”

Tracking Serving Counter Maintenance and Warranties
Staying on top of required maintenance as well as warranties is the best way to ensure your serving area stays looking and working like new for as long as possible. To track maintenance and repair schedules as well as warranty lengths, choose a method that fits your organizational style best—whether that be an old-school notebook, a cloud-based digital spreadsheet or management software—and make sure key staff have access to your chosen method. Be sure to make note of pertinent warranty hotlines and, in the case of online portals, the necessary logins and passwords. “When our customers have a warranty request, they contact us directly,” McKinney says. “We have a sticker on every one of our counters that’s like its nameplate, and typically all we need is a picture of it and we can get someone out there immediately.”

Note: This article marks part three of a three-part series on how to remodel a serving area.

What To Look For When Specifying Serving Counters
Consider maintenance requirements when selecting serving counters, not just after installation. Features that improve access, simplify routine cleaning and support repairs ease maintenance over the equipment’s working life. Maintenance-related features to look for include the following:

Quick access to components. Service techs should be able to easily remove panels to get inside the counters and fix a leak or work on a refrigerator, for example.
User-friendly filters on coils. Mod-U-Serve adds a magnetic, washable prefilter on refrigeration coils that employees can remove and wash in the sink. They help reduce labor.
Durable gaskets. Look for a high-end gasket material around drop-in well flanges versus silicone beads, which quickly fall apart.

Source https://www.fermag.com/articles/how-to-clean-and-maintain-serving-counters/

 

Why Restaurant Fit-Outs Fail Between the Mood Board and Saturday-Night Service

I’ve seen restaurant interiors look almost finished before they’ve really been tested. The lighting feels right, the furniture sits neatly in place and the room seems to have plenty of breathing space. On opening night, though, the picture changes quickly.

Guests naturally start moving chairs, coats appear on seat backs, and servers come out of the kitchen with full hands just as someone steps away from a table. As more customers and colleagues arrive, suddenly a route that looked generous on paper becomes awkward to use. None of this is unusual. This is the point where a design progresses from a visual idea to a real restaurant.

A lot of restaurant fit-out mistakes come from that gap. The design may look convincing, but it hasn’t been challenged by the pace and unpredictability of service.

Gaps Between Tables Are Where Problems Usually Start
A floor plan can look completely sensible until the restaurant fills up. Chairs move, people stand to let someone pass, staff pause beside tables and the clear route you thought you had becomes much less clear.

I’ve found it more useful to look at the room as a series of repeated movements rather than fixed pieces of furniture. If a server has to cut across the path to the toilets every few minutes, or a waiting area spills into the route from the kitchen, that friction keeps coming back all night.

These problems are rarely dramatic enough to jump out during a design review. They’re usually small, repetitive inconveniences. That’s exactly why they’re easy to miss and why they can become so irritating once the restaurant is busy.

More Tables Lead to Less Useful Capacity
There’s often pressure to use every available inch because empty floor space feels commercially wasteful. This is completely understandable. If one more table fits, why not add it?

The answer becomes clearer during a busy shift. A two-top placed beside a main service route may add two covers to the plan, but it can also force staff into repeated detours. Guests get brushed past, clearing becomes slower and the table itself may feel exposed because people are constantly moving around it.

That’s why I separate maximum capacity from usable capacity. The maximum tells you how many seats physically fit. The usable tells you how many people the restaurant can serve without making the room harder to operate.

Those figures aren’t always the same.

Storage Problems Have a Habit of Spreading
Storage is one of those things that looks unimportant until there isn’t enough of it. Very few people get excited about where spare menus, cleaning equipment, highchairs or takeaway packaging will live, but these items have to go somewhere once the restaurant is running.

If they don’t have a proper home, they begin appearing wherever staff can fit them. Clear corners become temporary storage, spare chairs sit in the corridor, while boxes are tucked beneath counters because it’s convenient in the moment.

The better approach is to think about storage by use rather than volume. Something needed twenty times a night should be easy to reach. Bulk stock can afford to sit further away. When everything gets treated as the same storage problem, staff end up walking further and customer-facing areas slowly become cluttered.

Good-Looking Furniture Still Has to Earn Its Place
Furniture and finishes take more punishment in hospitality than they often appear to during specification. Chairs are moved constantly. Tables get knocked. Surfaces are wiped again and again, sometimes with fairly aggressive cleaning products. Outdoor pieces may be dragged across terraces or stored away every evening.

So appearance is only one part of the decision. I’d also want to know what happens after repeated use. Can the finish be touched up? Will the surface stain easily? If one chair gets damaged in two years, can a matching replacement still be sourced?

Weight also deserves attention. A heavy chair can feel solid and well made, but staff may resent it if they’re moving dozens of them before and after every service. A very light chair can create the opposite problem, particularly outside or in high-traffic areas.

There’s rarely a perfect answer. The point is to specify how the restaurant works, not just for the opening photographs.

The Room Won’t Sound the Same at 8 pm
Acoustics are easy to misjudge during a pre-opening visit because the room is usually almost empty. With only a few people inside, even a hard-surfaced space can seem perfectly comfortable.

Fill every table and the conditions change. Conversations overlap. Staff call across the room. Cutlery, glassware and equipment all add to the background noise. If the interior relies heavily on stone, glass or exposed hard surfaces, sound can travel far more aggressively than expected.

That doesn’t mean every restaurant should feel hushed. Some spaces benefit from a sense of energy. The problem comes when the room becomes tiring to sit in or guests have to lean forward to hear one another.

Acoustics are easier to deal with when they’re considered before opening. Waiting until complaints arrive usually means working backwards.

Ask Staff About Movement, Not Taste
Front-line staff often see problems that aren’t obvious in the design process. They think in sequences because they have to. A server knows how many times they’ll cross the dining room. A chef notices when the route to the pass feels awkward. Bar staff can usually predict where used glassware will collect during a rush.

That kind of input is useful because it’s practical rather than aesthetic.

I wouldn’t hand the design over to a committee, but I would ask staff to walk through a typical service and point out anything that could slow them down. There’s a meaningful difference between asking, “Do you like this layout?” and asking, “What happens here when the restaurant is full?”

The second question tends to produce better answers.

Put the Layout Under Pressure Before You Approve It
One exercise I think more fit-outs would benefit from is a simple peak-service simulation. Before the layout is frozen, stop looking at it as a finished drawing and start treating it like a busy Saturday night.

Assume the restaurant is full. A group arrives early and waits near the host point. Several dishes leave the kitchen at once. A delivery driver turns up, a table needs clearing and someone needs the accessible route. Then the weather changes and people from the terrace start moving indoors.

Now look at the plan again.

Where does the first bottleneck appear? What ends up being stored temporarily because there’s nowhere else for it? Which table causes staff to alter their route? Does the room still function when several things happen at once?

That last point is the one I think gets missed most often. Restaurant drawings are very good at showing space, but service is about timing as much as space. Two routes can both look perfectly acceptable until people need to use them simultaneously.

A successful restaurant interior still needs atmosphere, character and a strong visual identity. I’m not arguing against any of that. But those qualities have to survive contact with the working day.

The real test isn’t how the room looks before the doors open. It’s how little the design gets in the way once service starts.

Hilary Chadwick is the Founder and Co-Partner of Chadwick Design, where she designs, refurbishes, and fits out commercial furniture projects. Chadwick, who has 30 years of experience, specializes in supplying the hotel, care, and leisure sectors, with particular expertise in the holiday park industry.

Source https://modernrestaurantmanagement.com/why-restaurant-fit-outs-fail-between-the-mood-board-and-saturday-night-service/

 

Exploding the ‘Karen’ Myth

Restaurant operators might be surprised to learn the face behind those who ask to speak with the manager is probably not the one they expect. A five-year study from the Edge Hotel School at the University of Essex identified personality traits that drive customer complaints challenging commonly-held assumptions about the “Karen” stereotype.

After tracking nearly 1,000 meals using 100 volunteer restaurant diners, the findings revealed there is no link between age, gender, or income when it comes to complainers. Men complained no more or less than women, older diners no more or less than younger ones, and higher earners no more or less than lower earners, according to the data.

It Comes Down to Personality
“It became very clear that the driver behind complaint behaviour was not age, gender or income but specific personality traits of entitlement, redress (sense of right and wrong) and assertiveness all increasing likelihood of complaining and empathy reducing the likelihood,”said Dr. Adrian Martin, Head of School at Edge Hotel School. University of Essex.

Martin, who worked in restaurants and managed a hotel early in his career, couldn’t understand why different customers reacted so differently to the same service errors so he set about researching the answer. They identified three factors that reliably predict whether a customer will speak up if there is a problem while they are having a meal out:

Staff actions during the meal
The circumstances of the meal, whether it was a birthday or other special event
Customer personality type
When it came to the personality type, the customers who were most likely to complain were those who feel they need to right a wrong or unfairness, Dr. Martin explained. After this, came those with a sense of entitlement and assertiveness. In comparison, the research found empathetic diners were significantly less likely to become dissatisfied, and less likely to complain if they were.

How to Handle Mistakes
The study also measured how restaurants handled mistakes once they happened. It found that 40 percent of errors made by restaurants were never raised by customers, with diners choosing to stay silent. A further 45 percent of errors were mentioned by the customer and resolved well by front-line staff on the spot. The remainder escalated, either to management or into formal complaints.

“Restaurant staff that fix issues as they arise significantly reduce complaints, yet interviewing staff many admitted to ignoring faults,” said Dr. Martin, adding that some said If they know a table is not happy, they don’t go over to them and see if they just leave without mentioning anything.

The biggest thing an operator can do to reduce complaints is to get the welcome right, as data suggests making customers feel special on arrival was a significant reducer of the likelihood of complaining. It sets the initial direction of the visit and is hard to reverse if the welcome is poor.

Many errors go unmentioned because the customer’s personality is preventing them from raising it, the data found.

“We need to get better at proactively fixing problems and apologizing without the need for a complaint. Others built such a good connection the customer forgave the fault rather than raise it. Staff fixed so many issues without management ever being aware of it, but there’s still room to improve.

Managers need to know that they are only seeing the tip of the iceberg of the errors happening under their nose, he added.

“I think we need to get better at individualizing the experience of customers rather than being consistent,” said Dr. Martin. “Staff need to be emotionally intelligent enough to spot a timid customer for instance and seat them in a defensive position (in a booth, for instance) whereas an entitled customer likes to be in the middle of the restaurant. Redress customers enjoy being thanked for their complaint and told it will help us improve and others will benefit.”

Creating Guest Connections
Another part of the research involves tipping which also relates to empathy and building connections so there are real benefits to the staff if they spend time building a connection, according to the findings.

“That greet and seat and initial order is so much more important that many realize and can reduce problems later in the meal as customers start to forgive those little errors that a poor welcome might mean a complaint,” said Dr. Martin. “Fix the problem and take charge of the complaint. Saying ‘I know the food is a little slow tonight, so I am going to do this for you…’ is so reassuring to the customer and turns a negative to a positive.”

While the research was conducted in British restaurants, Dr. Martin believes that while there may be cultural differences, the overriding result that it is personality led not demographically is global.

“I also believe the staff connection and welcome is a key global improvement any restaurant can make. Your best friendliest staff member needs to be that person.”

Dr. Martin has a few ideas why “Karen” became the face of complaints.

“My working theory is that we are just more shocked when we see a female lose their temper when complaining and more accepting of it when it’s a man. This suggests stereotyping is affecting how we see things as the data does not concur with the modern ‘Karen phenomenon.”

Source https://modernrestaurantmanagement.com/exploding-the-karen-myth/

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FOOD & BEVERAGE NEWS

Gatorade Recalled Over Undeclared Dyes

PepsiCo is pulling over 122,000 cases of the sports drink.

PepsiCo quietly initiated a recall of tens of thousands of cases of its Gatorade sports drink late last month because the labels did not disclose the presence of yellow food dyes.

The food and beverage giant started the recall on Sept. 25, according to a notice posted by the FDA. The company did not issue a press release about the measure, which impacted 122,021 cases of beverages with Yellow No. 6 and/or Yellow No. 5 that was not declared on the label.

The recalled products include 28-ounce bottles in “Lemon Lime,” “Lemon Lime Zero,” “Orange” and “Orange Zero” flavors. The cases were distributed across 37 states.

Source https://www.foodmanufacturing.com/recalls-alerts/news/22975932/gatorade-recalled-over-undeclared-dyes

 

How Olipop’s new CEO plans to reach $1B in sales

Christian Patiño Webb says he’s focused on execution as the prebiotic soda brand faces mounting competition from a steady stream of new rivals.

Olipop’s new CEO aims to grow the pioneering better-for-you soda brand to $1 billion in sales despite increased competition in the emerging category.

Christian Patiño Webb stepped into Olipop’s top leadership position in August. He’s the first non-founder to lead the brand after former CEO Ben Goodwin stepped into a research- and strategy-focused role and became chairman of the board.

“On the operational side, the not-so-fun part of the business, that’s where I come in,” Patiño Webb said. “The goal is that both [Ben] and I co-lead this organization to continue letting it grow and reach our first billion [in sales.]”

Olipop, founded in 2018, was valued at $1.85 billion last year after nabbing $50 million in funding from Growth Equity Partners. Olipop hit nearly $500 million in sales in 2024, according to media reports, though the company declined to share current sales numbers.

While Poppi, Olipop’s largest competitor in better-for-you soda that was founded three years before Olipop, sold to PepsiCo last year for nearly $2 billion, Goodwin has indicated that Olipop isn’t for sale. By hiring Patiño Webb, Olipop is doubling down on what it views as its science-backed value proposition.

Patiño Webb hails from hydration brand Electrolit, where he was CEO for four years following a stint at Unilever. At Electrolit, Patiño Webb said he enjoyed building a better-for-you brand with “best-in-class ingredients and a pharmaceutical heritage” — an approach he plans to replicate at Olipop.

His expertise will be tested by an increasingly crowded slate of rivals —roughly one new better-for-you soda competitor enters the market per week, Patiño Webb said. Olipop has worked to stand out from a growing list of better-for-you soda competitors by honing in on its health claims, investing in nutritional research to gauge the drink’s effect on blood sugar and digestion. Still, the brand must also contend with broader macroeconomic headwinds, like consumer pullback and price sensitivity.

Cans of Olipop have significantly more fiber than other options, boasting up to 9 grams of prebiotic fiber per can compared to Poppi, which has 2 grams. This nutrition profile could help capture and retain health-conscious customers.

Source https://www.fooddive.com/news/olipop-ceo-christian-patino-webb-interview-1-billion-sales-better-for-you-soda/831539/

 

Leftovers: BeatBox jams with Cinnabon | Topo Chico launches premium canned water

The party punch brand is bringing an April Fools’ joke to life, while Bauducco looks to introduce Americans to panettone made with Skippy peanut butter.

BeatBox jams into the bakery
Beatbox is hoping its latest innovation with Cinnabon hits the right note with consumer tastebuds.

The party punch brand, which is majority owned by AB InBev, is partnering with the sweets chain to launch BeatBox Cinnamon Roll. The beverage reportedly combines notes of spiced cinnamon, brown sugar and rich cream cheese frosting, bringing the indulgent flavors inspired by Cinnabon into a drinkable format.

The idea first came to life on April Fools’ Day in 2023, when BeatBox teased a Cinnabon-inspired flavor as a joke. Fans loved the idea, asking BeatBox and Cinnabon to turn it into a real product.

“That’s what we love about the BeatBox community,” Justin Fenchel, co-founder and CEO of BeatBox Beverages, said in a statement. “They’re vocal, they keep us on our toes and they inspire some of our best ideas.”

Cinnamon Roll joins a pipeline of more than 15 flavors and innovations inspired by BeatBox consumers, according to the alcohol brand.

April Fools’ has proven to be a way for brands to get free publicity, but in some cases, a few of the out-of-this-world ideas have actually turned into reality.

Ferrero in February released a Dr Pepper Tic Tac, following up on a joke made in 2025. Before that, Kraft Heinz released a Claussen pickle cocktail based on an April Fools’ prank and Burt’s Bees turned a fake collaboration with Hidden Valley Ranch into reality.

— Christopher Doering

Topo Chico is entering the premium sparkling water market with Colección.

The offering from the Coca-Cola-owned brand is a carbonated, filtered water made with Topo Chico’s signature minerals “for flavor inspired by the iconic taste experience.”

As a sparkling and filtered water, Colección was created to stand out in the Topo Chico portfolio. Topo Chico’s lineup already includes its flagship mineral water and Sabores, a flavored sparkling water with fruit juice. Unlike Topo Chico’s classic water, which is served in a glass bottle, Colección comes in a can, which lends itself to a more portable format.

“By bringing the iconic Topo Chico taste experience to a premium canned format, we’re creating new ways for consumers to enjoy Topo Chico in more places, while staying rooted in the heritage and character that have made the brand a beloved favorite for generations,” Sue Lynne Cha, vice president of water and tea in North America for Coca-Cola, said in a statement.

The water is available in an eight-pack of 12-ounce slim cans at Walmart, Target, Albertson’s, Safeway and online. It retails for $9.99.

Source https://www.fooddive.com/news/leftovers-beatbox-cinnabon-topo-chico-canned-water-Bauducco-skippy/832606/

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HVAC & PLUMBING

Cooling Equipment Shipment Growth Hits 7-Month Streak

Heat pumps have reshaped August shipments over 10 years

Need to Know
Combined U.S. central air conditioner and air-source heat pump shipments reached 756,739 units in August 2026, an 11.4% increase over August 2025, marking seven consecutive months of year-over-year growth.
Heat pumps accounted for 44.7% of combined cooling equipment shipments in August 2026, up from 31% in August 2016, reflecting a 57.6% increase in heat pump shipments over the decade.
Gas warm-air furnace shipments declined 4.3% to 287,710 units in August 2026, while oil furnace shipments increased 27.1% to 3,052 units, extending a six-month growth streak.
Central a/c unit shipments saw impressive growth in August, though they still haven’t caught up to the steady increase that heat pumps continue to experience.

The new Equipment Shipment Data report from Air-Conditioning, Heating, & Refrigeration Institute analyzed August 2026 shipment data, showing central a/c units growing by 17.2% compared to the same time last year, outpacing heat pumps by more than three times.

Even so, heat pumps continue to drive growth and are a major portion of cooling equipment shipments, increasing to nearly 50% of the share over the past decade.

Other equipment categories had mixed results during the summer month, with oil furnaces continuing a surprising rebound while gas furnaces and residential water heater categories declined.

Air Conditioners and Heat Pumps
Combined shipments of a/c and heat pump equipment have increased for seven straight months (February through August). Even so, August’s increase was not as strong as June and July, which saw 21.7% and 20.1%, respectively. This could be chalked up to seasonal shifts.

When broken down, heat pumps remain a stalwart source of growth, having increased over the past seven months, whereas a/c units have seen consecutive growth for six months (March increased by only 0.1%). This indicates the recovery of cooling equipment has been stable versus one or two unusually strong months.

Here is how August 2026 compared to August 2025:

Air conditioners and heat pumps: 756,739 units, up 11.4% from 679,378
Air conditioners only: 418,323 units, up 17.2% from 356,930
Heat pumps only: 338,416 units, up 5% from 322,448
Heat pumps were 44.7% of the combined shipments. That is the second-highest percentage for August in the report’s history, second only to August 2025 (47.5%).

The following compares the year-to-date shipments for August 2026 compared to August 2025:

Air conditioner units and air-source heat pumps: 6.39 million, up 6.2% from 6.02 million
Air conditioners only: 3.48 million, up 6.5% from 3.27 million
Heat pumps only: 2.91 million, up 5.7% from 2.75 million
The numbers signal a stronger distributor replenishment activity and improved availability heading into fall.

Warm-Air Furnaces
Like previous reports for summer months, heating equipment is not sought out nearly as much as cooling equipment in August. Of the two categories, though, oil furnaces continue a six-month growth streak.

The following are the numbers for August 2026 compared to August 2025:

Gas warm-air furnaces: 287,710, down 4.3% from 300,585
Oil warm-air furnaces: 3,052, up 27.1% from 2,401
The oil furnace growth is interesting, as it was higher than August 2025 by 27.1% and 40% from August 2024. Even so, this doesn’t necessarily indicate a nationwide demand for the product, as gas furnaces make up the majority of the market share.

August 2026 year-to-date shipping totals were as follows, compared to August 2025:

Gas warm-air furnaces: 2.11 million, down 5% from 2.22 million
Oil warm-air furnaces: 20,693, up 15.7% from 17,891

Residential Storage Water Heaters
Just as they did in July, gas and electric residential water heater shipments fell in August. Gas water heaters have increased year over year for the past two months after declining in January through May.

Residential gas storage water heaters: 299,710, down 1.9% from 305,401
Residential electric storage water heaters: 368,402, down 1.6% from 374,414
Electric units are still outselling their gas counterparts, with 68,692 more electric units sold, though this isn’t confirmation that they are consistently growing. Case in point, both categories saw declines compared to August 2025’s year-to-date totals:

Residential gas storage water heaters: 2.79 million, down 2.4% from 2.86 million
Residential electric storage water heaters: 3.25 million, down 4.8% from 3.41 million

Historical August Trends
Combined cooling equipment shipments saw a 9.3% increase when examining the past decade of August data. In August 2016, combined a/c and heat pump shipments were 692,214, while in August 2026 it was 756,739.

Heat Pump Share of August Cooling Shipments.
HEAT PUMP SHARE: Heat pumps have slowly taken on a larger share of the combined a/c and heat pump shipments since 2010. (Generative AI chart created by ChatGPT)

Like previous reports, the August data highlights the steady growth of heat pumps. From August 2016 to August 2026, heat pump shipments increased by 57.6%. Compare this to a/c units, which declined 12.4% in the same period.

In August 2016, heat pumps represented 31% of combined cooling shipments. That has grown to 44.7%. Heat pumps have represented more than 40% of August cooling shipments in three of the past five years.

This being the case, heat pumps should be treated as a core part of cooling season business planning, not just a heating season product.

Electric and gas water heater shipment totals were below previous years in August, with gas units down 12.1% and electric down 16.1% compared to August. Gas water heaters have declined by 14.9% from August 2016, while electric units have seen modest growth of 3.7%.

On the furnace front, recent declines haven’t stopped overall growth over the past decade. Gas furnaces are up by 5.3% compared to August 2016, and oil furnaces are up 13.3%.

Overall growth from the report’s first data set for August 2009 shipments is as follows:

RECESSION RECOVERY: A look at how August 2026 shipment numbers compared to August 2009, the report’s earliest data set and when the country was enduring the Great Recession. (Generative AI chart created by ChatGPT)

Many of these numbers are eye-popping, such as heat pump growth of 159.7% compared to a/c’s 24.3%, and oil furnaces’ overall decline of 33.8%. There is a caveat: 2009 was during the Great Recession, so the table doesn’t necessarily reflect growth rates through the period from 2009 to 2026.

Source https://www.achrnews.com/articles/166784-cooling-equipment-shipment-growth-hits-7-month-streak

 

HARDI Flags Potentially Illegal HVAC Products in Channel

Group offers resources for avoiding questionable equipment, refrigerants

Distributors are seeing a rise in equipment and refrigerants in the HVACR channel that may not comply with federal regulations, and Heating, Air-conditioning and Refrigeration Distributors International (HARDI) is working to protect members from buying what could turn out to be dead inventory.

In particular, a HARDI advisory said, some R-410A outdoor condensing units made in 2025 or 2026 that may not comply with U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) efficiency standards could be illegally in the market. R-410A condensing units can still be manufactured or imported to service an existing system, but they can’t be used in a full system replacement. They must also meet DOE efficiency standards and carry a “for servicing only” label.

It’s important that distributors are aware of what is and isn’t compliant, and that potential violations are reported, HARDI’s advisory said.

“We want to help protect this channel and make sure that noncompliant product isn’t being stuck in wholesalers’ warehouses,” said Alex Ayers, HARDI’s vice president of government affairs, in a recorded message.

Concerns arose because of reports that unfamiliar manufacturers, importers, and brands have been approaching HARDI members with equipment for sale, including R-410A units, Ayers wrote in a blog post.

Ayers listed some red flags distributors should look for when considering equipment buys. They were:
• A manufacturer or equipment model that is not in the DOE database;
• A lack of certification information from the supplier;
• A model number that doesn’t match what’s on the certification record;
• A claimed Air-conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI), UL, or Intertek ETL certification that can’t be verified;
• A newly manufactured R-410A unit that’s marketed for a new system, or that lacks a “for servicing only” label;
• A seller’s claim about a refrigerant, or a product’s efficiency rating or certification, that isn’t supported by records.

“Any one of these may have an explanation,” Ayers wrote. “The right response is to stop and ask questions before putting the equipment into inventory.”

Safety regulations may apply to certain kinds of equipment, and such equipment must be tested by independent laboratories such as UL or ETL. Because certification marks can be faked, certification should be verified with the organization whose mark is listed.

One obvious sign that a piece of equipment doesn’t meet safety standards, Ayers wrote, is if it’s claimed the unit can be used with refrigerants in different safety classifications, such as A1 and A2L.

“If a condensing unit says it can be used with R-410A, R-32, and R-454B, it violates the safety standard,” he wrote.

HARDI provided links to several databases distributors can use to research equipment: the AHRI Directory of Certified Product Performance, the DOE Compliance Certification Database, the Intertek ETL Listed Mark Directory, and the UL Product iQ site.

HARDI has also built a one-sheet online form members can use to report potential non-compliant products. The sheet asks for the names of the brand and the seller, a link to the seller or product, the model number, the possible noncompliance issue, and other basic information. Some information is optional. A photo of the equipment nameplate and any product literature or spec sheets would also be helpful, HARDI’s advisory said, but the online form doesn’t call for those items.

HARDI will take the information, do further research, and submit information about likely noncompliant products to the DOE or the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for possible federal investigation, Ayers said.

Source https://www.achrnews.com/articles/166788-hardi-flags-potentially-illegal-hvac-products-in-distribution-channel

 

HVAC manufacturers ask judge to toss price-fixing lawsuit

Major HVAC manufacturers on Friday asked a federal judge to dismiss a class-action lawsuit accusing them of conspiring to fix prices and overcharge for equipment since 2020.

What’s happening: In a joint motion filed Oct. 9, seven OEMs — Bosch, Carrier, Daikin, Lennox, Rheem, Trane, and AAON — and their subsidiaries asked a judge to dismiss consolidated antitrust complaints filed against them earlier this year.

Catch up quick: Plaintiffs allege that beginning in January 2020, the manufacturers have engaged in a price-fixing conspiracy that has resulted in a roughly eight percent overcharge compared with what prices would have been absent collusion, as Homepros reported in March.

Plaintiffs accuse the manufacturers of sharing non-public competitive data amongst themselves and coordinating price increases — and argue that the OEMs have had opportunities to collude via their involvement with AHRI and HARDI.
Statements that company executives made about “price discipline” during earnings calls over the past several years amounted to signaling, as did having their price increases nearly exclusively reported by ACHR News, the lawsuits allege.
Go deeper: In Friday’s motion, the defendants said the plaintiffs are trying to “contrive a conspiracy from nothing more than ordinary business dealings.”

For the lawsuit to proceed, the plaintiffs need to provide either direct evidence of an agreement to fix prices or circumstantial evidence that plausibly suggests such an agreement, the motion argues. “Plaintiffs do not come close,” it says.
The defendants contend they each raised prices independently due to supply-chain challenges arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, the A2L transition, and tariffs.
Of note: Antitrust law distinguishes between “conscious parallelism” — when competitors independently match each other’s pricing, which is legal — and illegal price-fixing, which requires advance agreement among competitors.

A 2022 analysis of antitrust class-action cases found that when parties file a motion to dismiss, courts grant it roughly 50 percent of the time.
Yes, and: In a separate legal filing on Friday, Mitsubishi Electric Trane argued that it doesn’t belong among the defendants because it manufactures mini-splits, which are sold through different distribution channels and at different price points than the ducted HVAC equipment at issue in the consolidated case.

AAON likewise filed its own motion to dismiss because it makes custom commercial equipment. “A manufacturer that builds each product to a customer’s unique specifications, negotiates pricing project-by-project, and lacks standardized list prices, cannot plausibly participate in a commodity-market price-signaling conspiracy,” its filing says.
What we’re watching: It remains unclear when a ruling on the motions will be made.

Source https://homepros.news/hvac-manufacturers-ask-judge-to-toss-price-fixing-lawsuit/

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ENGINEERING, AUTOMATION, & IOT

Step Inside Octane Coffee, the Employee-Free Beverage Shop

The emerging brand uses robots and mobile ordering to speed up the drive-thru experience.

Adrian Deasy grew up around restaurants. His mother managed them for years, and he swore he would never go back.

Instead, he became a mechanical engineer, working across automotive, motorcycles, aerospace, and plastics. One day, he found himself looking at a drive-thru coffee line where guests were waiting 20 minutes for a drink. The engineer in him couldn’t let it go. With smartphones in customers’ hands, he thought there had to be a way to automate the experience and bring it down to 30 seconds or less.

“There’s something about foodservice that brings you back,” he says. “Once you can automate it—once you don’t have to be there all the time and handle a bunch of employees and customer complaints—it’s a much more enjoyable business to run.”

That idea sparked Octane Coffee, an “employee-free” automated drive-through concept built around mobile ordering, robotics, and GPS-based production timing. Its Brookfield, Wisconsin, location is the company’s only open store.

Deasy began working on Octane in 2017/2018, assembled an automated system in 2019, and raised roughly $500,000 in venture funding during 2020 and 2021.

At Brookfield, customers order through Octane’s app. The system tracks their location and compares their estimated arrival with the production time for their customized drink. The goal is to finish the order just before they reach the pickup window.

“We time everything so the drinks are being finished seconds before they pull up,” Deasy says. “It is as hot and ready or cold and ready as it can be.”

Customers scan a QR code in the app, take their drinks through the window, and leave. Deasy says regulars typically finish the handoff in 10 seconds or less. The system is designed to produce more than 200 drinks per hour, or about one every 18 seconds at the window.

Octane’s store is a prefabricated 30-foot shipping container. Plumbing, wiring, coffee equipment, and robotic hardware are installed before it reaches the site. The building measures 240 square feet, and the wider layout uses roughly 3,000 square feet. Once placed and connected to utilities, Deasy says it can be making coffee within a day and a half.

The menu includes cold coffees, energy drinks, lemonades, teas, sodas, slushies, nitro cold brew, and dirty sodas, alongside espresso and hot beverages. Recipes are programmed digitally, allowing Octane to test and deploy drinks without training employees on a new preparation process.

The labor model is central to Octane’s proposition. A “Java tech” visits the store for about an hour each day to clean, restock, and troubleshoot. Deasy says Octane could add ambassador-style workers to help customers or provide a human presence, but those workers would not make or hand out drinks.

“Let the robots do the hard and stressful stuff, and put humans where they can do good work,” he says. “Let them do customer service. Let them do hospitality.”

He contrasts that approach with a typical coffee-shop interaction.

“As soon as you place an order at a coffee shop, they turn around, they’re making a latte,” Deasy says. “You’re looking at the back of their head. They’re a cog in the machine at that point. You’re not interacting.”

The system required trial and error.

“There are plenty of people who are saying, ‘It’ll never work,’” Deasy says. “And to those people, I say, ‘Here it is. It’s running. It just took a lot of belief and a lot of spilled coffee and messes.’”

Problems generally trace back to people, not machinery, he adds.

“Nine times out of 10, if we have something wrong with the system, it’s always human-related,” Deasy says. “The robots don’t mess up.”

Octane is pursuing two growth paths. The consumer-facing business is working with a franchise partner and could open franchises in Q4, pending an FDD filing. It also plans two or three company-owned locations over the next year to test manufacturing, service, and remote support.

The second arm focuses on automation for other beverage and foodservice operations. Octane is talking with coffee chains and beverage concepts about retrofits in existing locations. The idea is to “take the guts out of the shipping container” and install them inside an existing location, fitting automation into current footprints without new builds.

For now, Octane remains a one-store test with ambitions beyond coffee. Deasy says Octane operates not just at tech’s cutting edge but the “bleeding edge,” pushing hardware and software capabilities beyond off-the-shelf norms.

“As engineers, we definitely have a culture of continuous improvement. We’re always trying to make things 1 percent or 2 percent better,” he says. “How can the hardware be more effective? How can the customer experience be better? How can we leverage technology to give someone a unique, personalized, special experience that no one else could ever recreate at scale?”

Source https://www.qsrmagazine.com/story/step-inside-octane-coffee-the-employee-free-beverage-shop/

 

AI’s growing role in purchasing decisions

JACKSONVILLE, FLA. — Shoppers increasingly are using artificial intelligence (AI) tools to inform their purchasing decisions, according to new research from the Acosta Group.

The group’s AI shopper study found that 66% of shoppers report using AI tools while shopping, with Gen Z and millennial shoppers being the most likely cohorts to use AI tools. Among Gen Z and millennials, half report AI having had some influence on their purchasing choices, primarily to help them choose from among product options, Acosta Group said.

“Success requires brands to build new or elevated pathways for their products to be understood, recommended, compared and selected by any AI,” said John Carroll, president of connected commerce for Acosta Group.

The report identified saving money, saving time, product comparisons and product research as the primary reasons consumers choose to use AI. The tools are used most often for frequently purchased categories, and the majority of shoppers remain committed to familiar brands versus choosing unfamiliar brands based on AI recommendations. However, 40% of shoppers who said they had purchasing decisions influenced by AI said they tried a brand they had never purchased before, representing a potential area of opportunity, according to the report.

Autonomous purchasing is yet to gain broader traction, Acosta Group said. Among the 34% of shoppers that report using generative AI, such as ChatGPT and Google Gemini, 22% said they trust AI shopping agents to make purchasing decisions for them.

“Shoppers’ trust in AI for product recommendations has been slow in evolving to allow agents to make purchases on their behalf, reflecting concerns for the privacy of their own lives and those of their families,” said Kathy Risch, senior vice president of shopper insights and thought leadership for Acosta Group. “The more value shoppers experience with AI, the more likely they will share information, especially as brands and retailers provide transparency on how it will be protected. Companies that earn shopper trust now will be best positioned as AI becomes a more active purchase agent.”

Source https://www.foodbusinessnews.net/articles/31146-ais-growing-role-in-purchasing-decisions

 

CHR Group Buys Rmoni, Andy to Forge Foodservice Tech Powerhouse

PARIS – June 01, 2026 – European digital food safety leader CHR Group today announced a major strategic consolidation, acquiring technology specialists Rmoni and Andy in a move poised to reshape the digital landscape for the global foodservice industry. Backed by a new strategic investment from PSG Equity and continued support from existing investor Verto, the acquisitions signal an aggressive push to create a comprehensive, all-in-one digital platform for restaurants, hotels, and catering operators worldwide.

The deal brings Benelux-based Rmoni, a specialist in real-time sensor monitoring, and Spain-headquartered Andy, a provider of operational management software, under the CHR Group umbrella. They join CHR’s flagship platforms, ePackPro and Adoria, which already serve approximately 185,000 users across 28,000 sites in nearly 50 countries. The move is a clear declaration of CHR’s ambition to move beyond its core food safety and compliance offerings and become an indispensable digital partner for the entire foodservice operation.

Beyond Compliance: The Push for Operational Excellence
For years, digitalization in the kitchen has been synonymous with Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) compliance. CHR Group’s ePackPro platform built its reputation on digitizing food safety self-checks and traceability. However, these new acquisitions reflect a significant shift in strategy, aiming to address a much broader spectrum of operational challenges.

“With Rmoni and Andy, we are taking a new step in the development of ePackPro,” said Stéphane Ankaoua, CEO at ePackPro and president of CHR Group, in the official announcement. “These acquisitions enable us to expand our offering beyond HACCP compliance by integrating two dimensions that have become critical for foodservice and food retail professionals: on-site operational management and connected equipment monitoring.”

This expansion taps into two of the most powerful trends in modern foodservice technology. Rmoni brings sophisticated Internet of Things (IoT) capabilities, providing advanced real-time sensor technology for monitoring critical parameters like temperature and humidity. For an industry where a malfunctioning freezer can lead to thousands of dollars in lost inventory and significant safety risks, Rmoni’s wireless sensors and cloud-based analytics offer a proactive solution. This technology is already trusted by major international groups like McDonald’s and Sodexo to automate quality control and ensure regulatory adherence.

Meanwhile, Andy provides a “digital assistant” for multi-site restaurant chains, streamlining everything from daily checklists and cleaning schedules to production management and internal communications. Its software, utilized by global brands such as Starbucks and Domino’s Pizza across 5,000 sites, is designed to eliminate manual paperwork, reduce human error, and provide management with real-time visibility across all locations. By integrating these tools, CHR Group aims to offer a unified system where food safety compliance, equipment performance, and daily staff workflows are managed seamlessly within a single ecosystem.

Fueling Global Ambitions: The Role of Private Equity
The engine behind CHR Group’s aggressive expansion is significant financial backing from the private equity sector. The deal is supported by a new strategic investment from PSG Equity, a growth equity firm known for partnering with high-growth software companies, alongside the continued backing of existing investor Verto. This infusion of capital is not just for funding the acquisitions but for fueling a much larger global strategy.

Private equity investment allows CHR Group to accelerate its international development, particularly in the home markets of its new acquisitions. The move immediately strengthens the group’s footprint in Spain, Belgium, and the Netherlands. More importantly, it provides the war chest for further M&A activity and organic growth in new territories.

The company’s ambition is clearly global. CHR Group recently established a subsidiary in Dubai to spearhead expansion into the Middle East and Asia, signaling that its vision extends far beyond European borders. The support from PSG Equity and Verto provides the strategic and financial muscle to compete on a global scale, transforming a European leader into a worldwide contender.

Reshaping the Competitive Landscape
By combining ePackPro, Adoria, Rmoni, and Andy, CHR Group is assembling a formidable suite of tools that few competitors can match. The global HACCP software market, projected to grow significantly in the coming years, is shifting towards integrated, cloud-based solutions. CHR is positioning itself to lead this shift, not just follow it.

The strategic advantage lies in offering an integrated platform that addresses multiple pain points. A restaurant operator will no longer need one vendor for HACCP compliance, another for supply chain management (Adoria’s specialty), a third for IoT temperature sensors, and a fourth for operational checklists. CHR’s vision is to provide a single, cohesive solution that delivers a holistic view of the business.

This consolidation significantly enhances CHR’s appeal to the lucrative enterprise segment. Large, multi-site restaurant chains and hospitality groups value standardization, scalability, and centralized control—all features that a unified platform is uniquely positioned to provide. The combined client roster, which now includes some of the most recognizable names in foodservice, gives CHR Group immense credibility and a powerful springboard for cross-selling its expanded services. As the foodservice industry continues to grapple with tight margins, labor shortages, and increasing regulatory demands, the demand for comprehensive digital tools that boost efficiency and ensure safety has never been higher. CHR Group is making a bold play to be the definitive answer to that demand.

Source https://briefglance.com/articles/chr-group-buys-rmoni-andy-to-forge-foodservice-tech-powerhouse

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JAN/SAN AND DISPOSABLES

Marsden Services Announces COO Promotion

Marsden Holding, L.L.C., a St. Paul-based facility services provider, announced the promotion of Timothy Keller to Chief Operating Officer. Keller will be responsible for leading the organization’s integrated facility services operations and executing Marsden’s strategic long-term goals.

Keller brings more than 25 years of experience in operations, security, and business development. Prior to joining Marsden in 2022, he served as Region President for Securitas Security Services’ Northeast region. Throughout his career, Keller has held multiple leadership positions where he has been responsible for large-scale operations and driving consistent quality standards across different teams in various environments.

Overall, Keller is known for building high-performing teams, navigating complex integrations, and leading with a client-first mindset. He has a proven track record of designing and implementing operational solutions to drive predictable outcomes and enhance capacity. He has led diverse business units through various economic cycles and regulatory environments, while simultaneously accelerating business growth and transformation.

“I am very pleased to have Tim in this role, and I am confident that he will position the business for productivity and growth,” says Guy Mingo, CEO of Marsden. “During his time at Marsden, Tim has demonstrated his ability to design and implement operational solutions, drive outcomes, manage complex systems, and build strong relationships with clients and team members.”

Keller has a master’s degree in Business and Organizational Security Management from Webster University. He is on the board of advisors for Belfry Software.

Source https://www.cleanlink.com/news/article/Marsden-Services-Announces-COO-Promotion–33095

 

Sunset Converting plans $30 million investment in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu

The expansion will add robotic equipment and production lines, connect two facilities and create approximately 15 specialized jobs

Sunset Converting Corp. is planning an approximately $30 million investment in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, as part of an expansion project aimed at increasing its production capacity and automating its operations.

The company, which currently employs about 125 people, has recently acquired the building at 597 boulevard Industriel, adjacent to its existing facility at 601 boulevard Industriel. The two buildings will be connected to create an integrated industrial complex and accommodate the company’s automation project.

The investment will include the acquisition of robotic equipment, the installation of additional production lines, and expansion and integration work between the buildings. The project is expected to transform Sunset Converting’s three occupied buildings into a more automated manufacturing complex.

The expansion is also expected to create approximately 15 specialized positions, including production line operators, automation technicians, electromechanics technicians and floor supervisors. As a result, the company’s workforce is projected to increase from approximately 125 to nearly 140 employees.

Sunset Converting began operations six years ago and has since expanded its customer base to include major distributors in Canada and the United States. Approximately 50% of its production is currently exported to the U.S. market.

NexDev has supported Sunset Converting since the company established its operations in the region, helping facilitate the development of its activities in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu. For the latest expansion phase, NexDev worked as an intermediary between the company and several municipal departments, including urban planning, infrastructure and public works.

According to the organization, this coordination helped facilitate communication between the parties involved and advance the project while meeting municipal requirements.

The investment represents another stage in Sunset Converting’s development in the Haut-Richelieu region, combining increased manufacturing activity, automation investments and the creation of specialized jobs.

Source https://tissueonlinenorthamerica.com/sunset-converting-plans-30-million-investment-in-saint-jean-sur-richelieu/

 

Kruger unveils 2026 Cashmere Collection to raise funds for breast cancer initiatives

Featuring designs by 16 Canadian designers, the collection raises funds through public voting and sales of specially marked Cashmere and Purex bathroom tissue packages

Kruger has unveiled the 2026 edition of its Cashmere Collection, an initiative that brings together Canadian designers to create couture pieces using the company’s bathroom tissue while raising funds for breast cancer-related initiatives.

Now in its 23rd year, the collection features designs by 16 Canadian designers developed around the theme of Symphony. According to the company, the initiative has raised more than $5.6 million since 2004 to support breast cancer awareness, research and community programs.

The company is inviting Canadians to vote for their favourite design through the Cashmere Collection website. For each vote submitted, Cashmere will donate $1 to breast cancer initiatives through its charitable partners, the Canadian Cancer Society and the Quebec Breast Cancer Foundation, up to a total of $100,000.

Consumers can also contribute by purchasing specially marked pink ribbon packages of Cashmere and Purex bathroom tissue. For each package sold, an additional $1 will be donated to the cause through the same charitable partners, subject to a separate limit of $100,000.

Through the annual collection and its associated fundraising activities, Kruger aims to support efforts related to breast cancer awareness, research and community programs.

Source https://tissueonlinenorthamerica.com/kruger-unveils-2026-cashmere-collection-to-raise-funds-for-breast-cancer-initiatives/

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