Guzman y Gomez to open three new Queensland drive-thru stores
A popular Mexican food chain is continuing to expand across Queensland’s southeast with plans to hire 300 staff as it opens three more drive-thru stores in the next three months.
City Beat
Don't miss out on the headlines from City Beat. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Fast growing Mexican fast food chain Guzman y Gomez plans to rollout three new stores in Queensland in the next three months and more than 30 across the country by the end of the year.
GYG currently has 53 stores in Queensland and will open three new drive-through venues at Rochedale in Brisbane’s south and Morayfield and Warner in the Moreton Bay region.
Founder and chief executive Steven Marks said they plan to open about 30 restaurants a year in Australia to meet double digit annual growth which means new jobs.
“We have over 7500 employees globally and we are constantly hiring,” he said.
“With an average of 100 new crew for each restaurant opening, we expect to add another 1500 jobs before the end of this financial year.
“As of today, we have 350 open roles in Queensland from restaurant crew to cooks and we encourage everyone to look on our website and apply.”
Marks said GYG’s overseas expansion was ramping up.
“Our team in Singapore is constantly identifying new sites and expansion in the US is where our focus will be moving forward,” he said.
“We want to be the biggest and best restaurant company in the world but we’re doing things properly and setting ourselves up for success now and in the long term.”
SMART IDEA
A Brisbane digital health start-up is on the way to the commercialisation of a smartphone application which will use the sound of your coughing to diagnose Covid-19.
ASX-listed ResApp Health is preparing for talks with regulators after positive results on the technology for screening before the use of a rapid antigen (RAT) or PCR test.
Dr Tony Keating, who founded the company in 2015 with Brian Leedman, says trials found the app could detect Covid in 92 per cent of people with the infection through the use of cough audio and patient-reported symptoms.
“The Covid tests are still in the early trial stages but we have had great results,” he says.
“Basically the way we’ve designed the test is that of it says No and you don’t have Covid, you don’t have to do a RAT or a PCR test but if it says YES then you go down the normal path of testing.”
A Covid test that only requires a smartphone would significantly reduce the number of RAT or PCR tests required, improving availability, reducing costs, and reducing environmental impact.
A smartphone-based test also has the ability to improve security and reporting of results to employees and other group by using biometric identification such as facial recognition.
The technology is based on research by University of Queensland Associate Professor Udantha Abeyratne whose work was funded through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
That work led to ResApp Health winning regulatory approval and then the commercialisation of the initial research which enabled the detection of asthma, pneumonia and other respiratory conditions by coughing through the telehealth service used by doctors working remotely.
When the pandemic hit the company started working on new algorithms for the technology to diagnose Covid through a smartphone.
Keating says it’s too early to say when the smartphone app will be available.
“We’re talking to pharmaceutical companies, tech companies, government and any number of big organisations who can help us bring this technology to everyone’s home,” he says.
BACK FLYING
Brisbane Airport has struck a pre-Covid milestone with more than 51,800 passengers using the Domestic Terminal on Friday.
With Easter holidays in full swing is was the terminals busiest day in two years.
Brisbane Airport Corporation representative Rachel Bronish says they were “incredibly excited” to see the terminal’s concourses and halls full of travellers.
“The Easter school holiday period is proving to be hugely successful for tourism with people exploring their country and visiting loved ones, but with that comes some challenges,” she says.
Nic De Luca skis through to a double celebration
Developer Nic De Luca is celebrating his 30th wedding anniversary on the ski fields of Colorado and is also preparing to mark three decades since starting his company.
Skroo says early cyclone shutdown ‘text book case of overreaction’
Flight Centre Graham ‘Skroo’ Turner was not alone in criticising the premature shutdown of the city in preparation for Cyclone Alfred and its impact on business.