Restaurant

BRUSSELS — Delhaize's U.S. division has a new leader.

The supermarket conglomerate announced that Roland Smith will serve as Delhaize America's president and CEO, as well as EVP of the Delhaize Group, effective Oct. 15. Smith is replacing Ronald Hodge, who will be retiring from his post this year. Hodge will serve in an advisory role to ensure a smooth transition.

Canton, Mass. -- Dunkin' Donuts announced the signing of multi-unit store development agreements with four franchise groups to develop 29 new restaurants in Houston and Waco, Texas, over the next several years.

Ann Arbor, Mich. -- Domino's Pizza announced that it joined the SmartWay Transport Partnership, a collaboration between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and industry that provides a framework to assess the environmental and energy efficiency of goods movement supply chains.

Domino's Pizza will contribute to the Partnership's savings of 1.5 billion gallons of fuel, $3.6 billion in fuel costs, 14.7 MMT of carbon dioxide, 215,000 tons of oxides of nitrogen and 8,000 tons of particulate matter.

New York -- The store opening plans of retailers hit a four-year high in July, according to the August edition of the National Retailer Demand Monthly report from RBC Capital Markets and Retail Lease Trac.

Retailers in the RBC database currently plan to open 78,325 stores over the next 24 months, which represents an 11% increase over openings projected at the end of 2011, and a 0.6% increase over June’s level.

Wounded retailers have a tendency to take irrational actions which means Walmart could have its hands full this holiday season as Best Buy is looking desperate and has a new CEO at the helm.

New York -- McDonald’s Corp. is testing a mobile payments service with PayPal in 30 McDonald’s locations in France.

Using the service, McDonald's customers can order food on smartphones through a McDonald's application, or online, and then pay for their food with PayPal via either the McDonald’s mobile app or a web browser. There is a separate line in the test locations to pick up the meals, according to a report in the Chicago Tribune.

Dallas -- PeopleAnswers announced a software licensing agreement with Boston Market to use the PeopleAnswers HR solution to help identify and select all field employees in its 476 locations across the United States.

Dallas -- PeopleAnswers announced a software licensing agreement with Boston Market to use the PeopleAnswers HR solution to help identify and select all field employees in its 476 locations across the United States.