China

The coffee chain reached a valuation of $1 billion.

The announcement follows notable competitors' expansion plans in the country.

One agreement involves the growth of a bak kut teh brand in Shenzhen and Guangzhou.

They sold all 34 locations to a private equity firm-owned portfoilo company.

The pretzel brand marks the start of their parent company’s growth strategy in the country.

Their first site recently opened at the Reel Mall in Shanghai. Wetzel’s Pretzels announced it has opened its first location in China, six months after signing a deal to enter the country. The American pretzel brand’s first store at the Reel Mall in Shanghai is the first of three Wetzel’s Pretzels which are slated to open in the coming months, and one of the fifty the brand has in the development pipeline for China. “Wetzel’s Pretzels offers a fresh-baked product, served fast. It’s a brand that will resonate well with consumers in Shanghai. With our first location open and corporate training center built, we’re looking forward to getting other locations up and running, and expanding the brand,” said Will Zhu, head franchisee for Wetzel’s Pretzels in China.

The brands target to have 10 locations by May 2019.

Customers at cafés and restaurants may soon place their orders in a machine via voice. With the aim of enhancing the customer experience, Alibaba launched its “smart ordering” system – featuring software where order placements are addressed to a machine via voice recognition technology. The new innovation from Alibaba Machine Intelligence Technologies boasts that the machine’s AI is able make as many order changes or corrections to update the order in real time.

It is expected to reach across more than 125,000 premium points of distribution in partnership with Tingyi.

It also reaffirmed $20 million five-year commitment to social impact programs.

The venture is said to eventually allow substantial control of the master franchise for Asia Pacific.

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

To mark World Book Day, Yum China celebrated the grand opening of the "Pizza Hut Book Donation and Exchange Sub-Center" in Shenzhen.

Its total system sales grew 6%, with 9% rise at KFC partially offset by 1% decline at Pizza Hut.

It is driven by incremental revenues from the impact of the ownership change in East China.

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