Miscellaneous

🥃 Black Tot Master Blender’s Reserve 2025 releases in July, as part of an award-winning series featuring a perpetual blend technique. This year's edition includes rare rums from Guyana, Jamaica, Barbados, and Trinidad's Caroni distillery. With 3,000 bottles available globally at £145 each, the blend is bottled at navy strength (54.5% ABV). The perpetual blend method honors navy rum traditions, ensuring unique complexity with each annual release since its 2020 inception.

🍺 The Wheatsheaf, located in Fitzrovia, London, has reopened after an extensive refurbishment by Nicholson’s Pubs Collection. This historic pub, once frequented by literary figures like George Orwell and Dylan Thomas, features a new upstairs space called The Orwell Room. It offers Nicholson’s Pale Ale and award-winning pies, including a new Chicken, Mushroom & Henry Weston’s Cider pie. It's open Monday-Thursday 11am-11pm, Friday-Saturday 11am-12am, and Sunday 12pm-10:30pm. Address: Rathbone Place, London W1T 1JB.

✈️ Air India forms four new interline partnerships with airBaltic, Bulgaria Air, Cyprus Airways, and Uzbekistan Airways as of 2025. This expansion adds 16 destinations across six countries in Europe and Central Asia. Over 30 Indian cities will now have seamless connections for travelers. Chief Commercial Officer Nipun Aggarwal emphasizes that this move enhances global reach and bolsters India’s aviation hub status. Booking is available via Air India’s website, mobile app, and travel agents.

✈️ Air France-KLM partners with IBS Software to integrate the iFlight solution across a fleet of over 500 aircraft. The goal is to streamline operations, reduce costs, and minimize delays through a unified digital platform. The implementation promises improved decision-making and resource allocation, enhancing passenger experience. This deal, following a successful deployment at Transavia Netherlands, is the largest iFlight operations agreement for IBS, affecting Air France, KLM, and KLM CityHopper.

💻 Nomadix Inc. has announced a distribution agreement with TD SYNNEX, a leading distributor, to expand its connectivity and digital engagement solutions across North America. This partnership targets industries like hospitality, education, and government. Michael Fox and Speleos Dravillas from Nomadix emphasize growth and leadership in technology delivery, while Cheryl Day from TD SYNNEX highlights adding Nomadix to their vendor portfolio. VARs, MSPs, and SIs can access these solutions immediately.

📈 Consumer sentiment showed improvement in June 2025, with dining participation rates rising to 77.3% from 76.4% in Q4 2024. Visits per week increased from 1.99 to 2.19. Despite this, 87% of trade-off households plan to reduce restaurant spending. Menu prices have outpaced groceries for 27 months, but median household income rose to $85,632. Trade-off consumers have increased to 34.5% in June. Restaurants are advised to entice these consumers with promotions and value offerings.

🍗 In 2011, Edley’s Bar-B-Que launched in Nashville, now expanding to Chattanooga, Franklin, and Gallatin, Tennessee. They introduced “Nashville-Style BBQ,” featuring a dry rub with 15-20 ingredients like cayenne and a sauce blending traditional barbecue flavors with fermented habanero mash. This new style is available in brisket, pork, ribs, and wings. Edley’s aims to create a unique barbecue identity for Nashville, driven by consumer demand for the city’s signature heat in authentic, slow-smoked barbecue.

🍴 In 2024, Toast processed 16% of U.S. restaurant card volume. Cloud disruptors, like Toast, Square, and Lightspeed, now dominate the POS market, once led by legacy vendors NCR Aloha and Oracle Micros. Platforms like DoorDash and Uber Eats command the U.S. delivery market, exceeding $170B TAM. Loyalty programs, advanced CRM tools, and integrated marketing solutions, such as Popmenu, are becoming essential. This transformation emphasizes streamlined operations and enhanced customer engagement.

🛫 LeShuttle and IAG Loyalty's new partnership allows customers to collect and redeem Avios for the first time on LeShuttle journeys. Launched last month, Club LeShuttle offers discounts starting at 1,000 Avios per vehicle. Exclusive offers and rewards target frequent travellers, families, and leisure adventurers. Deborah Merrens, CCO of LeShuttle, highlights this as a significant milestone for multi-modal travel loyalty, enhancing customer journeys. Club LeShuttle will roll out in phases over the coming year.