700 delivery hubs in plans at Wendy's
Wendy's plans to open 700 delivery-only kitchens by 2025 to meet the growing demand from people who want their fast food delivered to them.
Wendy's said the kitchens will primarily operate in big cities in the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom, where the chain has fewer regular restaurants. The hamburger chain will open its first 50 delivery kitchens this year.
Dublin, Ohio-based Wendy's is working with Reef Technology Inc., a Miami company that runs 5,000 delivery kitchens in 30 cities worldwide.
In a conference call Wednesday with investors, Todd Penegor, Wendy's president and chief executive, said Reef will build the stores and hire workers for the kitchens, each of which is expected to see sales of $500,000 to $1 million per year. Wendy's will get royalties of around 6% of sales.
Wendy's said third parties like DoorDash, Uber Eats and Grubhub will deliver the food.
Demand for restaurant delivery surged when restaurants closed their dining rooms last year. Delivery accounted for 3.3% of U.S. restaurant traffic in the year that ended in June 2019, according to NPD Group. That rose to 8.4% in the year that ended this June.
-- The Associated Press
Fear of salmonella forces chicken recall
Serenade Foods, an Indiana manufacturer, is recalling nearly 60,000 pounds of frozen and raw chicken products for possible salmonella contamination this week after dozens of people across a number of states have gotten sick.
The brands of the five Serenade products included in the recall -- Dutch Farms Chicken, Milford Valley Chicken and Aldi store brand Kirkwood -- were shipped to distributors nationwide after they were produced Feb. 24 and 25 in Milford, Ind. The products flagged by federal health officials were chicken with broccoli and cheese or chicken cordon bleu and given the establishment number "P-2375" inside the U.S. Department of Agriculture's mark of inspection.
Twenty-eight people have gotten sick from the outbreak as of Tuesday, according to the CDC, and 11 have been hospitalized. No one has died in the outbreak, the CDC said.
-- The Washington Post
State index inches up to end at 685.26
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, closed Thursday at 685.26, up 6.71.
"Despite fears of an overdue market correction, increased covid cases, and a potential Federal Reserve taper of asset purchases, equities continue to set new highs as the health care and information technology sectors led today's advance," said Leon Lants, managing director at Stephens Inc.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.