By Jonathan Stempel<\/p>\n
OMAHA, Nebraska, May 4 (Reuters) \u2013 Middle East tensions including war in Iran have led Berkshire Hathaway-owned Dairy Queen to put expansion plans in the region on hold, as cautious franchisees address supply-chain disruptions, the restaurant chain\u2019s chief \u200bexecutive said.<\/p>\n
Speaking during Berkshire\u2019s annual shareholder weekend in early May, Chief Executive Troy \u200cBader said shipping restrictions through the Strait of Hormuz require finding alternative routes to ship products that cannot be obtained locally.<\/p>\n
Dairy Queen operates in Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, according to its website, and had expressed interest in entering Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere is Middle East expansion now? We are \u200cstill highly \u200binterested, but right now we are more in a \u2060hold position,\u201d Bader said.<\/p>\n
\u201cFranchisees over there \u2060are saying they want to wait to see what happens,\u201d he continued. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to start up a new brand in any new country. You have to reach scale quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n
LOWER-INCOME DINERS \u2018WEARY\u2019 OF INFLATION<\/p>\n
International Dairy Queen, the Bloomington,\u00a0Minnesota-based company\u2019s full name, has more than \u200b7,900 stores in 20 countries.<\/p>\n
Its fastest expansion has been in China, where it has more than 1,800 stores and same-store sales grew 10% last year. Total sales rose about \u20603% in 2025 to nearly $6.6 billion.<\/p>\n
Bader said Dairy Queen\u2019s \u2060U.S. customer base has begun to \u201csegment,\u201d with wealthier diners continuing to \u200bbuy Blizzard ice cream treats, burgers and chicken strips, while lower-income consumers feel the pinch from \u200belevated borrowing costs and inflation at a nearly three-year high.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany are becoming \u200ca little weary,\u201d Bader said. \u201cWe\u2019ve had persistent inflation, and interest rates remain high. Most recently, we\u2019ve seen a significant and fast increase in fuel prices.\u201d For some of them, Dairy Queen offers $5 mix-and-match food options and $7 meal deals.<\/p>\n
AI WITH YOUR ICE CREAM<\/p>\n
Artificial intelligence is also part \u2060of Dairy Queen\u2019s future, as it prepares to test a chatbot developed by technology company Presto in about 50 drive-thrus.<\/p>\n
An initial test found the bot got 90% of orders right. That sounds \u2060low, but Bader said employees \u200cmonitor AI-generated orders, and his goal is for accuracy topping 99%. \u2060He also said AI frees employees to do other jobs.<\/p>\n
McDonald\u2019s, \u200bYum Brands\u2019 \u200cTaco Bell, Restaurant Brands International\u2019s Burger King and Wendy\u2019s are among \u200bother restaurant \u2060chains that have tested AI in the ordering process.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you didn\u2019t have AI, for the individual at the window, taking orders would be 100% of what they\u2019re doing,\u201d Bader said. \u201cWhile I\u2019m listening, I can be monitoring the quality of the product, or providing hospitality to a guest in a different way. It\u2019s about elevating the customer experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in Omaha, Nebraska; \u200bEditing by Bill Berkrot)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Jonathan Stempel OMAHA, Nebraska, May 4 (Reuters) \u2013 Middle East tensions including war in Iran have led…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":219547,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-219546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}