New Resource from National Restaurant Association Provides Insights into Operational Realities

Dampened customer traffic and stubbornly elevated costs combined to keep pressure on the bottom line, resulting in modest profit margins – even by restaurant standards – according to the National Restaurant Association. Released today, the Restaurant Operations Data Abstract provides restaurant operators, investors, and industry leaders with a detailed financial snapshot of the fullservice and limited-service sectors.

Based on financial and operational data from more than 900 restaurants nationwide, the report includes a wide range of insights across key cost centers. These include food and...

UK Retailers React to Tariff Uncertainty With 76% of Exporters Diversifying Beyond the US Market

New research from ESW and Retail Economics reveals that 76% of UK exporters are now actively diversifying beyond the US, historically the UK’s largest non-EU retail market. Larger UK retailers are radically re-drawing their global growth playbooks as protectionist trade policies upend decades-old export patterns. However, 71% of small UK retailers admit they have no formal plan for sudden trade-policy shocks, a stark operational gap that could hit margins overnight.

The report, “Rethinking Reach...

Global Appetite for Australian Red Meat Continues at Pace: New Records in Exports for FY2024–25

Australia’s red meat industry exported new record volumes of beef and mutton in the 2024-2025 financial year.

According to Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA), total beef and veal exports for the financial year reached 1.4 million tonnes, the highest annual volume ever. Mutton exports also hit a new record at 256,104 tonnes. Lamb exports totalled 363,109 tonnes, making it the second-largest financial year for lamb exports.

June 2025 alone saw 134,593 tonnes of beef exported, marking the highest...

Convenience Store M&A Activity Suggests More Consolidation is Coming

The pace of merger and acquisition activity in the U.S. convenience store sector is accelerating with recent trends suggesting the nation’s c-store landscape is ripe for more change. While most of the transactions in 2024 involved smaller chains or single-store operators, several larger operators inked deals to significantly expand their footprints into new regions.

According to a new research brief from CoBank’s Knowledge Exchange, c-store consolidation stands to disproportionally affect rural communities, many of which lack a grocery store or access...

Pork Shipments Grow 26.6% in March

Surveys by the Brazilian Animal Protein Association (ABPA), based on data from the Foreign Trade Secretariat (Secex), show that Brazilian pork exports (considering all products, both fresh and processed) totaled 116.3 thousand tons in March, a volume 26.6% higher than that shipped in the same month of 2024, with 91.9 thousand tons.

Foreign exchange revenue was even more significant, reaching US$ 278 million, 44.2% higher than the US$ 192.8 million recorded in the same month of the previous year.

In the first quarter of 2025, international...

NCC to HHS: Emphasize Chicken in 2025 Dietary Guidelines

The National Chicken Council (NCC) today urged the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to reject recommendations put forth by the U.S. Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) that emphasize plant-based proteins over lean meats like chicken.

NCC’s comments were submitted in response to the Scientific Report released last December by the DGAC, which makes recommendations to the Departments of Agriculture and HHS as they work to finalize the 2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans later this year.

Among the recommendations to which NCC...