In Brief 2007

FM Staff

Service America Group (formerly All Seasons Services) is opening a second location of its automated c-store concept Shop 24 in columbus, oh, in partnership with Kroger grocery stores. SAG's first Shop 24 unit opened at the end of 2005 on the campus of the State university of New York in Morristown. Shop 24 units are automated, unmanned units that vend up to 200 dry and refrigerated food and non-food products around the clock.

Chicago Restaurant Partners, a joint venture between Larry Levy of Levy restaurants and phil Stefani of phil Stefani Signature restaurants co., have landed a 10-year, $300 million contract to provide food service and catering at chicago's Mccormick place convention center. the new contract goes into effect September 1 and is expected to generate $300 million in gross sales over a 10-year period. Last year the food service contract generated $24.6 million in gross sales.

Host America Corp. plans to change its name to certeran corp. after spinning off its two food services divisions, according to a proxy statement sent to the u.S. Securities & exchange commission. host America hopes to raise $3.7 million by selling its Lindley Food Service and host America corporate Dining units to their current managers.

Parkhurst Dining Services has announced that it will recycle its used vegetable oil to generate bio-diesel fuel for use in company owned vehicles. it has engaged Valley proteins/carolina By-products to collect and recycle the oil in a dedicated facility in pittsburgh. parkhurst will use a percentage of the bio-diesel fuel in company owned vehicles.

Food management firm Taher Inc., has opened its first commercial restaurant unit, Wayzata eatery & Wine Bar, in Wayzata, MN. the kitchen is headed by chef Matt Quist, who has been with the company for the past seven years.

The UC Santa Cruz Crown/Merrill dining hall was recently certified as "green" by the city of Santa cruz in a ceremony led by Mayor emily reilly. the certification requires meeting more than 150 guidelines in areas ranging from energy efficiency and waste management to paper consumption and recycling. crown/Merrill became the first place on campus, and the first restaurant in Santa cruz, to get the green certification.

Celebrations Gourmet Catering has acquired corporate catering, based in Danvers, ct. terms of the transaction were not disclosed. celebrations, a unit of Newton, MA-based foodservice management firm unidine corp., plans to use the deal to further fuel its recent expansion into the corporate catering arena as well as adding more resources for continued growth in all of its other operations.

A study of organic and natural foods in the foodservice channel by the Technomic research and consulting organization found that sales of organic and natural products in foodservice are expected to grow at a 15 to 20 percent compounded average annual growth rate from 2007 to 2010. "We believe that sales of organic and natural products represent a societal shift and not just a fad," says technomic executive Vice president Gary Karp. "consumers of organic and natural products acknowledge that they eat these products for health and wellness reasons, but also because they taste better."