Australia

It offered the new item for free to employees of a certain fast food chain during launch week.

The chain’s first franchised store will open its doors in December.

Offer documents may be ready by the first half of 2021.

The cafe chain looks to capitalise on the footfall expected in the upcoming festive season.

More than 70% of its customers order online, the pizza firm revealed.

As a result, the fast food giant says it will be purchasing almost 17 million kilograms of Aussie chicken this year.

Here is a summary of the most interesting QSR news stories of the week from around the world.

Find out what QSRs have been up to on social media this week.BRAND AND STORE UPDATESSushi Hub opened its 91st store, located in Perth.

PREPsafe founder George Walton explains how their products also contribute to a better customer experience.

The range can also be bought as a take home pack.Gelatissimo announced its new Flavours of the USA range, which includes items that incorporate popular American brands.Peanut Butter Cup Made With Reese’s is made from creamy peanut butter gelato and a hint of Hershey's cocoa powder and is filled with a chocolate ripple and scattered with roasted peanuts and chunks of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.Chocolate Kisses Made With Hershey’s is made with Hershey’s kisses and Hersey’s cocoa powder, then drizzled with more melted Hersey’s Kisses throughout. The third flavour in the range, Bourbon Caramel & Pecans, is a collaboration with West Australian distillery Whipper Snapper, showcasing Whipper Snapper’s Upshot Whiskey which is infused into the gelato. The gelato is then drizzled with bourbon caramel swirls and sprinkled with crushed candied pecans. Flavours of the USA is available across all 44 Gelatissimo stores in Australia from 9 October for a limited time only, whilst stocks last.

As technology takes over businesses across industries, the words ‘digitalisation,’ ‘technological innovation,’ ‘digital competence,’ ‘disruptive technology,’ and many others often come up in business discussions.

Items are available starting 20 October from select VIC and NSW stores.

This is in addition to the existing food-to-go concept agreement between the two companies.Oliver’s Real Food announced it has entered into a master franchise agreement to appoint EG Fuelco (Australia) Limited (EG), as its exclusive franchisee of its branded restaurants in the country’s petrol and convenience sector.The new agreement builds on the two companies’ existing food-to-go concept deal, which has already seen Oliver’s branded concessions present in 90 petrol service station across EG retail outlets five months since launch.The first EG-franchised Oliver’s Real Food outlet is planned to open in Western Sydney before end-2020. EG’s exclusive rights to the brand are based upon meeting and maintaining minimum performance criteria.Oliver’s, meanwhile, is not restricted from operating its current corporate store network, and or opening more locations on highway service centers and travel centers. It also maintains all rights to open, operate or franchise, all other market segments such as airports, hospitals, train stations, universities, shopping centres.The initial term of the agreement will be 10 years, with an option to renew the term for a further 10 years provided that both parties agree.“This is an exciting step in our evolution. Working with EG on the Oliver’s food-to-go offering has allowed us to glimpse the potential [of] this partnership. EG has enormous belief in our concept and is prepared to make a significant investment in growing the Oliver’s brand in the petrol and convenience sector in Australia. This partnership will provide Oliver’s with a material expansion opportunity, without the capital requirement we would normally require to execute such a large scale store rollout,” Oliver’s CEO Tammie Philips said in a statement.“The ambition is to follow the blueprint of EG’s partnerships with Greggs and other food retailers in the UK, expanding the nature of the service station forecourt, to become a food retail destination,” Oliver’s founder and chairman Jason Gunn added.

The move is a result of the chain’s creation of a new organisational structure in the APAC region.

The item is available until 2 November.KFC announced the roll out of its Popcorn Chicken Slab for limited time, a year after testing it in nine restaurants in Ballarat.The cult menu item is made of six soft dinner rolls filled with Popcorn Chicken, cheese and barbeque sauce.“When our fans heard about it, there were pleas to make it available across the country. We listened to our fans, and it’s now available across all our restaurants for everyone to tuck into and enjoy,” KFC Australia chief marketing officer Kristi Woolrych said in a media release.The Slab will be available in KFC restaurants nationwide from 6 October until 2 November.Photo credit: Dan Gosse

The pizza chain’s ‘Feed the Knead’ programme is also available nationwide.Domino’s announced its registered charity Give for Good has a new three-year partnership withnational suicide prevention charity Lifeline.Give for Good will give Lifeline $750,000 over the period to help fund the phased roll-out of a text support service across Australia as part of the latter’s digital transformation.Lifeline’s text service pilot, conducted from July 2018 to February 2019, revealed that more than53% who accessed the text line were under 24 years old, with 42% stating they “would not have reached out for support in any other way.”“With around 80% of our own Domino’s workforce under the age of 25, this partnership holds particular significance for our team members,” Domino’s ANZ CEO and Give for Good board member Nick Knight said. “Since the COVID-19 outbreak in March, Lifeline has experienced a 25 per cent increase in calls, to over 3,000 calls daily – that’s a call for help every thirty seconds.”Domino’s earlier said its community-based ‘Feed the Knead’ giving programme is now available in every state and territory Australia-wide.Feed the Knead was launched to encourage franchisees, team members and customers to provide localised support in the form of free pizza.Since the pandemic first hit, Domino’s and its registered charity Give for Good have donated more than 50,000 pizzas to those in need.