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Find out what QSRs have been up to on social media. BRAND AND STORE UPDATES

The global chicken brand will also test a new vegetarian option this year. Looking to improve consumer choice, KFC UK and Ireland has announced its ambition to reduce 20% of calories in their offerings by the year 2025. KFC says that calorie reduction commitment is also the latest phase of their long-term nutrition strategy, focusing on creating “new, lighter” meals, crafting new recipes to improve existing dishes, and making it easier for consumer to choose such options. Later this year, the brand is set to launch a new vegetarian option, which will be tested with customers. They also intend to make changes to their sides by 2019, which will then by followed by more lunch and dinner dishes under 600 calories.

The ice cream equipment company was previously lauded by the global food giant in 2015. McDonald’s has given its Global Reliability Award to the Carpigiani Group for efforts in maintaining reliability of equipment components and manufacturing capabilities as one of their suppliers. “This company has a reputation for strongly recognizing the importance of reliability to McDonald’s and their customers. They have maintained their reliability scores under McDonald’s required threshold consistently for more than 7 years. Among all the complex pieces of equipment in the McDonald’s system, they are the only supplier to achieve such results,” McDonald’s Corporate Vice President of Restaurant Solutions Jim Fox said. Founded in 1946, Carpigiani was previously given McDonald’s Innovation Award in 2015 and is known for their artisan gelato programme.

10% of those interactions resulted in an order. Aiming to illustrate the potential of augmented reality (AR) in customer engagement and sales, Just Eat announced that its recent campaign that featured the said technology saw a total of 102,000 unique interactions, 10% of which resulted in an order.

The tax bands were implemented in response to rising number of overweight children in the UK.

The modern RSS site based its criteria on Google search rankings, content quality, and social media influence.

The purchased sandwich and coffee brand currently operates 530 stores worldwide.

This is in response to a growing list of such proposals by companies.

To what extent is traditional coffee being outperformed? Data from The NPD Group shows that in the year ending February 2018, the total out-of-home servings for specialty coffee are at a high 83% - indicating a huge opportunity for such in the coffee market despite flat coffee performance in the foodservice market.

The company will team up with entrepreneur Sarah Willingham for the programme.

Traditional grocery spend, meanwhile, decreased.

This is now the coffee brand’s seventh site in England.

It is also slated to open a second branch in early summer. Securing their expansion plans in London, Taiwanese tea brand YiFang has announced that it has opened its first permanent location in the UK. The cult brand, currently trading from a temporary unit at Old Spitafields Market, was assisted by leisure property agency Shelley Sandzer to acquire a permanent kiosk at 104 Shaftesbury Avenue. YiFang gets its inspiration from the founder’s childhood memories of drinking tea with his grandmother, after whom the brand is named. They showcase a range of all-natural teas are made with no preservatives or additives. The brand also follows unique sourcing by harvesting their premium tea from their own mountain plantations, hand-pick fruit from their own rural farms and locally sourcing from New Spitalfields Market.  “We are excited to open our first permanent location in the UK and look forward to opening the second site shortly. We’ve been given exceptional assistance and guidance from Shelley Sandzer and look forward to working with them as we introduce the Taiwanese tradition of drinking tea and the culture of our country to the UK,” YiFang’s Pokai Wang said.

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. NEW ON THE MENU Abokado wants you to try their new veggie offering: the Dragon Roll. This is made with plant-based ingredients and topped with a sprinkling of crunchy seeds. LEON lays it thick by releasing their 'thickshakes' - now available at Oxford, Brent Cross and London Bridge, as well as Spitalfields, Hammersmith and Bankside. PROMOS 

The global coffee brand is also celebrating its 20th year in the UK.