As restaurant operators seek to bolster sales in the face of weak traffic growth, Yum! Brands’ Pizza Hut is bringing beer delivery to approximately 100 of its restaurants in California and Arizona. The restaurant chain had begun testing the service in Phoenix back in December, Reuters reported.
The new rollout will include cities such as Tucson, Prescott and Winslow in Arizona, and Los Angeles, Bakersfield, Sacramento and Santa Barbara in California. As it stands, over 1,700 Pizza Hut locations in the U.S. have liquor licenses.
Pizza Hut Chief Marketing Officer Zipporah Allen told Reuters, “Many Pizza Hut restaurants are already licensed to serve and distribute beer, without third-party services, additional fees or extended wait times.”
In order to deliver beer, Pizza Hut drivers must be at least 21 years old and have training in liquor laws. In addition, the drivers will be able to cancel a beer order if customers can’t verify their ages.
The news comes as Yum! Brands is buying a 3 percent ownership stake in Grubhub and is teaming up with the company to provide delivery and online ordering in the future from two of its brands, KFC and Taco Bell.
In February, Grubhub CEO Matt Maloney told CNBC, “The partnership with Yum!, which we announced this morning, will accelerate the expansion of our delivery network and amplify our diner acquisition efforts, raising consumer awareness of online ordering and driving more volume for all restaurants across our platform,”
The partnership comes as fast food chains have increased their appetite for delivery. McDonald’s, for example, has rolled out delivery to 5,000 of its approximately 14,000 U.S. stores. And customers typically spend more when they order delivery, according to McDonald’s.
Grubhub has been in expansion mode. In 2017, it gobbled up at least three different food delivery competitors: Boston-based Foodler, Groupon’s OrderUp and, most recently, Yelp’s Eat24.
Zellis said Thursday (Jan. 9) that it plans to create an end-to-end artificial intelligence (AI)-powered human resources (HR) and payroll platform by acquiring elementsuite.
The acquisition will add elementsuite’s AI-enabled HR and workforce management (WFM) suite to Zellis’ payroll and HR platform that serves U.K.- and Ireland-based companies with more than 1,000 employees, Zellis said in a Thursday (Jan. 9) press release.
The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, according to the release.
“Bringing together the depth of talent across both businesses and combining the strength of elementsuite’s HR and AI capabilities with Zellis’ payroll, HR and AI capabilities will deliver even more value to our combined customers,” Abigail Vaughan, CEO of the Zellis business unit, said in the release.
Following the closing of the transaction, the two organizations will become one company, per the release.
The acquisition by Zellis will bring elementsuite’s technology to more businesses, Steve Elcock, CEO and founder of elementsuite, said in the release.
“Zellis’ leadership in payroll will further enhance our overall offering and will help us better meet market demand,” Elcock said.
Zellis parent company Zellis Group was acquired in April by private equity group Apax Partners, which said that the company was serving roughly “one third of the FTSE 100,” with its payroll software used to pay or reward around 5 million people each month.
“We have been closely tracking Zellis for some time, and we believe that the investments in technology and go-to-market infrastructure that the Zellis team have made positioned the company for long-term success,” Apax Partner Roy Mackenzie said at the time in a press release.
In another, separate deal in this sector, global HR and payroll product provider Deel acquired London-based money transfer service Atlantic Money in April, saying it aimed to strengthen Deel’s payment infrastructure in Europe. Atlantic Money had moved over a half billion pounds for more than 10,000 global customers since its launch two years earlier.
In September, finance and HR suite finally raised $200 million in new funding to bolster its small- to medium-sized business (SMB)-focused offering. The finally platform provides business owners with a suite of tools for managing things like bookkeeping, payroll, billpay and expense management.