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How COVID Made Contactless Dining the Norm

Diners have enough to worry about during the COVID-19 pandemic. The last thing they need to stress over is staying safe while paying the bill. That’s why solutions like Ready, which allows customers to check out using their own technology and without coming into contact with servers or a cashier, are perfect for…

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Diners have enough to worry about during the COVID-19 pandemic. The last thing they need to stress over is staying safe while paying the bill.

That’s why solutions like Ready, which allows customers to check out using their own technology and without coming into contact with servers or a cashier, are perfect for this moment.

“We absolutely believe that, once customers try this touchless checkout, there’s absolutely no reason they’d go back to what they were doing,” said Ready CEO Laurent May. “It saves time, it’s safer and it’s better for the staff.”

The pandemic created a perfect storm of innovation, as business owners touchless offerings and customer expectations met to create lasting solutions.

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MetaNovas says Orphic can generate a CPG project proposal package in about an hour

MetaNovas says Orphic can generate a CPG project proposal package in about an hour

MetaNovas says Orphic can turn a product brief into a complete proposal package quickly; in an internal test it produced one in about an hour versus roughly two weeks of cross-team work (Business Insider).

  • 01Orphic’s most concrete claim is cycle time: MetaNovas says a multi-function proposal package went from roughly two weeks to about an hour on a real ingestible beauty brief (Business Insider).
  • 02CPG teams evaluating agentic AI are simultaneously consolidating systems: 82% of respondents in Veeva QualityOne’s survey said they are moving from legacy or best-of-breed tools to unified platforms, a useful signal on integration expectations (PR Newswire).

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Leased modular cold storage trims upfront costs 20% to 30%, Titan Cold Storage says

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Titan Cold Storage's Søren Skov Mogensen, writing in Food Logistics, says leased modular cold storage units cut upfront construction costs 20% to 30% and can cut operating energy costs up to 30%. Newmark reports U.S. cold storage vacancy rising while demand grows. For food supply chain planners, the deciding variable is confidence in demand: steady, long-term load still favors a permanent build, while volatile peaks favor leased capacity.

  • 01Rising vacancy and rising demand at the same time, per Newmark's 2H 2025 report, means the U.S. cold storage market has spare space and a shortage of the right space; the useful question is now what kind of capacity, where, and for how long.
  • 02A 2023 Frontiers study of 67 cold stores found field energy use ran up to 30% above laboratory conditions, so a lease quote should be judged on the provider's measured fleet energy data, not on rated performance.
  • 03Leased modular units fit operators with a stable baseline and volatile peaks (harvest compression, plant renovations, rerouted supply); Titan's own author says permanent construction still makes sense where demand is long-term and steady.

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Hain Celestial is selling most of its international business to AURELIUS for $323 million

Hain Celestial has signed a definitive agreement, announced Sept. 14, to sell most of its International business to private equity firm AURELIUS for an estimated $323 million in cash. Ella's Kitchen and New Covent Garden soups are included. Retailers, distributors and suppliers trading with those brands could face a new counterparty once the deal closes, though no closing date has been reported.

  • 01Hain expects $305 million to $310 million in net proceeds on an estimated $323 million headline price, and the announcement does not itemize what accounts for the difference.
  • 02The package spans Ella’s Kitchen baby and kids foods, Joya and Natumi plant-based beverages, Hartley’s jelly, Linda McCartney Foods, Cully & Sully, and the Yorkshire Provender and New Covent Garden soup brands; if the deal closes as described, multi-category buyers could be dealing with one new owner across them.
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