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Yahoo
25 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Noodles & Company reports minor revenue dip in Q2 2025
US-based fast-casual chain Noodles & Company has announced a slight decline in total revenue, reported to be $126.4m, in the second quarter (Q2) ended 1 July 2025. This is 0.7% down from the $127.4m recorded in the same quarter of the previous year. The chain reported a net loss of $17.6m - a $0.38 loss per diluted share - against a net loss of $13.6m, or $0.30 loss per diluted share in Q2 2024. Despite the dip in revenue, the chain saw 1.5% system-wide comparable restaurant sales growth with both company-owned and franchise restaurants contributing to the increase. The operating margin for the quarter was reported at 11.7%, compared to 9% in the previous year's Q2. The restaurant contribution margin also saw a decrease to 12.8% from 15.5%. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation were $6m, down from $9.2m in the comparable quarter of 2024. During the quarter, the chain opened a new company-owned restaurant, closed six locations and saw the closure of two franchise restaurants. As of 1 July 2025, Noodles & Company had $2.3m in cash and cash equivalents, with outstanding debt of $108.3m. It has revised its full-year guidance for fiscal 2025, anticipating total revenue to be between $487m and $495m, along with a comparable restaurant sales growth of between 2.5% and 4%. Restaurant-level contribution margins are projected to range from 11.8% to 12.6%, with general and administrative expenses estimated between $48m and $50m. The company also expects to incur depreciation and amortisation costs of $27m to $29m, net interest expenses of $10.5m to $11.5m, and capital expenditures of $12 million to $13m. The forecast includes the opening of two new company-owned restaurants and the closure of between 28 and 32 company-owned restaurants. The chain operates 450 restaurants and employs 7,000. It recently announced a leadership transition, with Joseph D Christina to assume the role of president and CEO on 31 August 2025. Outgoing CEO Drew Madsen stated: "Our sales and traffic moderated after the initial successful rollout of our new menu due to the strong value-conscious climate as well as slower guest adoption of the upgrades made to some of our historic menu items. 'Our new Delicious Duos value-focused platform, which launched at the beginning of August, is off to a great start. Comparable restaurant sales have increased to an average of positive 5% over the past two weeks, demonstrating that our value-focused initiatives are resonating with guests." "Noodles & Company reports minor revenue dip in Q2 2025" was originally created and published by Verdict Food Service, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site.
Yahoo
25 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Frequent Travelers Drive High-Value Opportunities in the US
New LoopMe consumer data offers insights into travel planning, preferences, and booking behaviors NEW YORK, August 14, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--New research from LoopMe, the global leader in brand performance, reveals that while a majority of Americans book only one or two trips per year, there is a high-value segment of frequent travelers emerging. These consumers are between the ages of 18-24 years old and are likely to book up to seven trips a year, indicating a growing opportunity for brands to build long-term loyalty with younger consumers who are more likely to travel and spend. The report also revealed that domestic travel remains the most popular type of trip booked (39%), followed by nearby weekend getaways (23%) and international travel (17%). Cruises (15%) and theme parks (12%) have also been listed as popular destinations for Americans. International travelers (50%) and cruise-goers (48%) are also more likely to travel up to three times per year, creating an opportunity for brands and marketers to explore. When booking travel, 22% of US consumers use direct websites or online travel agencies (21%); however, other routes used include: Travel agency - 11% Credit card portals - 5% Employer travel portal - 4% Additional key insights from LoopMe's analysis include Frequent travelers spend big: Frequent travelers are more than twice as likely to spend at least $3000 per person on each trip Most Americans book travel for leisure and family visits: Top travel purposes include leisure (29%), family visits (24%), and group travel (7%). "While most Americans travel occasionally, the real opportunity lies with frequent travelers to build long-term loyalty and growth", said Brian Bell, GM North America at LoopMe. "As the travel landscape continues to evolve, brands have the perfect opportunity to reach emerging, high-value audiences and drive ROI in order to stay ahead in an increasingly competitive space." Methodology LoopMe surveyed 6,409 US consumers between 27-31 January 2025 to gauge travel habits, preferences, and motivations. About LoopMe LoopMe is the global leader in brand performance, redefining brand advertising for the digital and app ecosystem. LoopMe was the first to apply AI to brand advertising and its Intelligent Marketplace, finding solutions to industry challenges that haven't previously been solved. With consumer insights and AI at its core, LoopMe makes brand advertising better, outperforming industry benchmarks for leading global brands. Our vision is to change advertising for the better, by building technology that will redefine brand advertising. LoopMe was founded in 2012 and is headquartered in the UK, with global offices across New York, Boston, Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Toronto, Singapore, Sydney, Melbourne, Dnipro, Krakow, Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. For more information, please visit View source version on Contacts loopme@ Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
25 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Cohere hires long-time Meta research head Joelle Pineau as its chief AI officer
Investors once saw Canadian AI startup Cohere as a promising contender to challenge OpenAI and Anthropic in the race to build frontier AI models, with its backers pouring roughly $1 billion on their bet on CEO Aidan Gomez, who co-authored a seminal paper on LLMs when he was a 20-year-old Google intern. But Cohere's AI models have fallen behind the state-of-the-art, and its business hasn't scaled like its competitors. Now, the company is bringing in a veteran research leader to revamp its AI efforts: Cohere has hired Joelle Pineau, Meta's former VP of AI research who previously oversaw the tech giant's fundamental AI research (FAIR) lab. In her newly created Chief AI Officer role, Pineau will oversee AI strategy across Cohere's research, product and policy teams. A Canadian AI scientist and McGill Professor, Pineau helped guide the early development of Meta's open Llama AI models alongside Yann LeCun, a pioneer of neural networks. Pineau left Meta in May after nearly eight years with the company. For Cohere this is a big hire, and it is pinning its hopes on the veteran helping it with more research breakthroughs, improving its research and product pipeline, and recruiting top talent. The hire comes at a pivotal moment for Cohere: The company is reportedly seeking to raise up to $500 million at a $6.3 billion valuation — an impressive sum were the startup not competing with the likes of OpenAI, Google, Meta and Anthropic, whose war chests are worth dozens of billions each. But while its rivals are trying to develop AI systems that can match (or exceed) human performance on a wide variety of tasks, Cohere has a narrower focus. The startup primarily builds AI applications that can solve practical problems for enterprises and government agencies, emphasizing privacy and security. In an interview with TechCrunch, Pineau said Cohere's focus on real-world, enterprise applications is something she's excited about. 'A lot of players out there are quite singularly focused on AGI, superintelligence, and so on,' said Pineau, alluding to companies like her former employer, Meta, which recently invested billions in its new Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL) unit. 'They haven't necessarily figured out what this AI is going to be used for.' She pointed to OpenAI's launch of GPT-5 last week, which many felt was underwhelming, as evidence the timeline to achieving AGI may be 'a little bit longer than we thought.' In the meantime, Pineau says there's a lot of room for more practical AI models to deliver leaps in productivity in different industries. A Canada native, Pineau said she's had her eye on Cohere since they were founded in 2019, and that she's excited to contribute to a company whose founders are based in her home country. Beyond the patriotism, Pineau feels the opportunity with Cohere is a good chance to venture beyond research. At FAIR, Pineau oversaw research teams working on projects that could take anywhere from 18 months to 10 years to deliver. Now, she'll be working within a much tighter timeline, as well as getting involved with customers and products. And even though Cohere has fewer resources than Meta, Pineau said she'll be more agile in her new role. Cohere's latest product is an AI agent platform dubbed North that enterprises and government agencies can deploy privately on their own infrastructure, an attractive notion for many of its customers, which are banks and federal organizations that handle highly sensitive data. That puts Cohere in competition with open-source providers like DeepSeek and Meta, whose models can also be run locally, but at a lower cost. Cohere is betting that by offering more support around its private deployments, it can beat out open models. Pineau said she's particularly interested in gearing more of Cohere's research around North, figuring out ways to develop AI agents in private and secure settings, and creating benchmarks to evaluate these systems. Pineau also said she's interested in exploring how networks of AI agents interact with each other in the real world. One immediate challenge for Pineau will be replacing Cohere's VP of AI Research, Sara Hooker, who announced her departure this week after several years of helping build the company's research program. Hiring an AI researcher of Hooker's caliber may be difficult in the current market given the skyrocketing demand for AI talent. But Pineau sees this as an opportunity to 'bring in a lot of talent,' noting that when she left Meta, several of her former colleagues suggested they'd follow her to a new AI lab. However, she emphasized that Cohere has a solid base of AI researchers, and that it's important to not just bring in anyone. 'Hiring a bunch of superstars doesn't necessarily make a superstar team,' said Pineau. 'It's really about how the people work together.' Of course, Meta's AI units today look very different compared with when Pineau was there just a few months ago. Over the summer, Mark Zuckerberg went on a recruiting spree, reportedly offering some of the industry's best AI researchers compensation packages north of $100 million to join MSL. That prompted OpenAI to also raise compensation for its star employees, thus making it quite difficult for smaller players to land top AI researchers. As Meta, OpenAI and Anthropic throw billions of dollars at their AI efforts, Cohere is trying to do more with less. For Pineau, that will mean making calculated research bets — the kind that can quickly turn into compelling products and keep the company in the race. Sign in to access your portfolio
