International Business

Los Angeles — PizzaRev has signed agreements with four franchisee groups covering territory in five states. The deals will lead to the opening of new units in San Diego and Orange counties in California plus Utah, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota. Here are brief profiles of each group:

Jewel-Osco president William Emmons is retiring less than a year after taking the helm at the grocery chain, which is now part of New Albertsons Inc., according to a Chicago Tribune report.

Atlanta — Moe’s Southwest Grill has signed a deal to bring 18 new restaurants to Sacramento and Santa Cruz over the next seven years. This is the franchiser’s first push into California.

HKM II is the franchise group behind the California expansion. HKM II owns 42 quick-serve burger restaurants throughout Northern California, Southern Nevada and Arizona.

Seattle -- Nordstrom plans to open a full-line store in the heart of downtown Toronto, at Toronto Eaton Centre.

Construction of the approximately 213,000-sq.-ft., three-level store is set to begin in March 2014, with the store opening slated for fall 2016. Toronto Eaton Centre is owned and managed by The Cadillac Fairview Corp. Ltd.

Lifetime Brands, manufacturers of brands such as Farberware, KitchenAid and Guy Fieri, has acquired Thomas Plant (Birmingham) Limited.

Aliso Viejo, Calif. — John Rockets has opened its first restaurant in Guarulhos, Brazil, a suburb of Sao Paulo. It is the brand’s 100th location outside of the United States.

Franchise partners Antonio Augusto Ribeiro de Souza and Nicolli Ciappina de Souza operate the restaurant at Shopping Internacional, a large retail center with 2.4 million visitors per month. The partners have committed to opening 29 additional restaurants in Brazil over the next 10 years.

London -- Verizon is migrating Tesco to a single global network infrastructure, which will underpin Tesco’s ongoing application and infrastructure centralization program.

Los Angeles — The CBRE Group has signed a multi-year contract with Carlson to provide project management for select locations in the United States including the company’s world headquarters. Carlson is a family-owned, global hospitality and travel industry company with more than 1,300 hotels in operation and development and more than 900 restaurants worldwide.