Weekly Food Industry Report: June 14, 2013

Every week, we take a look into the biggest financial news to emerge from the world of food. Here is this week's:

American Restaurant Holdings : Focus Entertainment International has acquired American Restaurants and changed its name to American Restaurant Holdings, Inc. They hope to have a stable cash flow in the food serving industry by acquiring fast-casual and casual restaurants and retail food manufacturing because the food industry is expected to grow at least 3.5%.

Sonic: Sonic Corp, the nation's largest chain of drive-in restaurants, will host an investor meeting on Thursday June 27, 2013. It will cover the implementation of a new point-of-sale system and additional focus on unit growth. Their third fiscal quarter results will become public on June 24, 2013, but predictions include same-store sales were up 0.1%, but drive-in sales decreased 1.0%.

Amira Nature Foods: Amira Nature Foods announced their fourth quarter results as well as their full 2013-year fiscal results that ended March 31, 2013. During the fourth quarter, sales increased 10.2%, EBITDA increased 12.4%, and profit after tax also increased 17.5%. For the entire fiscal year 2013, revenue increased 25.7%, EBITDA increased 30.5%, and profit after tax increased 61.2%. Amira's CEO says their most demanded product is the Basmati rice, and says Amira is well positioned for continual growth as they start the fiscal 2014 year.

Taco John's: Taco John's, the West-Mex quick service restaurant chain will be using the FreedomPay Commerce Platform in over 400 locations to gain nationwide recognition and growth. While the company believes they already maintain a strong reputation in serving fresh foods and hiring passionate employees, this platform will drive long-term sales growth for the business and enhance the customer experience in-store and online.

U.S. Organic Foods and Beverages: Research and Markets has announced an addition to their State of the Industry offering about organic foods and beverages in the U.S. The reports are filled with data, forecast and objective analysis, as well as sometimes including historical, current and future sales data, market growth, and consumer data. Some key topics covered in this report are overall sales growth, industry growth trends, economic impact on these sales, and how social media has been a vital tool in marketing these companies.