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New Yorkers like to think their city is the center of the universe, and it will indeed achieve that title next month with the kickoff of the 98th annual International Hotel, Motel + Restaurant Show, running Nov. 9-12 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. IHMRS is offering free registration to all operators and end…

Dan Cathy has been promoted to chair and CEO of Chick-fil-A, succeeding his father, who remains as chair emeritus. S. Truett Cathy, 92, who founded the Atlanta-based quick-service chain in 1946, will turn his attention more fully to entrepreneurial efforts, including a new restaurant concept called Truett’s Luau, which is scheduled to open in Fayetteville,…

Yum! Brands, parent of KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, is reorganizing its business into separate reporting divisions by brand, with China and India remaining as individual divisions. On Jan. 1, 2014, Yum!’s three major restaurant brands will combine their U.S. systems with the former Yum Restaurants Int’l. division (YRI) and have individual global business…

The price-increase news for foodservice operators in December was actually pretty good. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported wholesale food prices at all three levels of the wholesale chain fell during the month. Finished foods were down 0.9% compared to November, intermediate foods and feeds also fell 0.9% and crude foodstuffs and feedstuffs prices dropped…

In spite of the uncertainty of the federal fiscal cliff late last year, manufacturers’ representatives saw sales of like lines grow 3.8% in the fourth quarter of 2012 compared with the same period in ’11, according to the latest Business Barometer from the Manufacturers’ Agents Association for the Foodservice Industry, released last week. The reps…

Overall state tax revenues increased by 5.2% in the fourth quarter of 2012, the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government reported April 24. But the Institute’s researchers warned that the surge, which drove personal income tax collections up 10.8%, was a one-time event prompted by taxpayers taking actions to minimize federal tax liability they expected…

The domestic economy is looking better than it has since the Great Recession began in 2008, according to economist Arjun Chakravarti, but there remain significant risk factors. And the gradually improving economic situation of many Americans should lead to the continuation of moderate foodservice sales growth over the next 18 months, said Technomic Pres. Ron…