UBS is planning to cut 3,000 jobs in Switzerland after its shock takeover of rival Credit Suisse.
The move comes as the financial giant targets nearly $10 billion in savings by 2026.
The shotgun marriage with UBS saved embattled Credit Suisse from possible collapse.
UBS is planning to cut 3,000 jobs in Switzerland as it continues to integrate Credit Suisse following the shock takeover of its rival earlier this year.
UBS chief executive Sergio Ermotti said in a call with investors on Thursday that the merger with Credit Suisse would result in "around 1,000" redundancies as it integrates Credit Suisse's domestic bank, and that the long-term restructuring process would "lead to about 2,000 additional redundancies in Switzerland over the next couple of years," per AFP.
In a memo to employees, Ermotti said that the 1,000 job cuts are expected to start in late 2024, per Reuters.
"The vast majority of cost reductions will come from natural attrition, retirements and internal mobility, while around 1,000 redundancies will result from the full integration of Credit Suisse (Schweiz) AG," he said.
In a statement accompanying UBS' earnings results on Thursday, Ermotti added: "Our analysis clearly shows that a full integration is the best outcome for UBS, our stakeholders and the Swiss economy."
The company said Thursday that it plans to complete the integration of Credit Suisse by the end of 2026 and aims to cut costs by $10 billion during that period.
The sudden collapse and takeover of Credit Suisse shocked the banking world earlier this year, raising fears of global financial contagion following the collapse of several regional US lenders including Silicon Valley Bank.
China's property sector has faced mounting stress in recent years, with developers struggling to service their enormous debt.
Investor anxiety about the property crisis has fueled a rout in Chinese developers' dollar bonds, which have lost 87% of their value, according to Debtwire.
As many as 53 Chinese developers have collapsed in recent years.
China's economy is facing many headwinds at the moment, and its once-booming property sector is increasingly looking like a bad bet for foreign investors.
The market for Chinese developers' dollar-denominated bonds has seen a meltdown over the past two years, losing a staggering 87% of value. The rout has wiped out $135.5 billion of value from $154.9 billion of outstanding notes, according to an analysis by Debtwire.
"The average price on the notes is now only a tad above 11 cents on the dollar," Debtwire co-managing editor Chaim Estulin wrote in an accompanying LinkedIn post.
The crash in Chinese builders' dollar debt is symptomatic of the broader crisis facing the nation's real-estate sector, which has seen 53 companies collapse in the space of little over two years. Investment in the sector fell 7.9% in the first half of this year, official data show. The industry as a whole shrank last quarter, resuming a contracting trend in place since 2021.
Country Garden Holdings – once China's largest developer by sales – risks being the next domino to fall, "if it doesn't cure two missed 7 August bond coupons by the end of a 30-day grace period, according to Debtwire. The company just reported a $6.7 billion loss for the first half of the year.
The embattled industry has been hanging on to every word of the Chinese government – whose long-awaited commitment to stimulate the slumping sector has not yet materialized.
It's a sector worth saving, too – China's property industry is gigantic. It accounts for about 30% of the country's overall output, and the headwinds it faces include heavy debt burdens and sluggish demand for new properties. This was a contributing factor in stunting the nation's second-quarter GDP growth, which came in at 6.3%, below economists' forecasts of up to 7.1%.
Economists remain pessimistic about China's economic prospects – forecasters polled by Bloomberg have cut their growth expectations for both 2023 and 2024.
Nancy Luna, Insider's restaurants reporter, tried the new IHOP biscuit menu.
Nancy Luna/Insider
IHOP has been tweaking its menu to lure diners since introducing steak burgers in 2018.
The chain's latest expansion includes its first biscuit menu.
We tried the sweet and savory biscuits to see whether they would entice newcomers to the brand.
IHOP introduced a biscuit menu nationwide on Monday featuring sweet and savory options available all day.
It is part of a yearslong strategy to evolve the chain's core menu. Remember 2018 when the chain playfully changed its name to IHOb to promote its new line of Ultimate Steakburgers? The buzzworthy campaign quadrupled its burger sales.
Well, this time around, it's not changing its name. But it is going out on a limb with biscuits, entering a food category with some fierce competitors, such as Chick-fil-A, Cracker Barrel, and Hardee's.
"Biscuits are not just a beloved item for breakfast but also for lunch or dinner," the company told Insider. "Biscuits meet guests' cravings, any time of day, and they bridge the gap between dayparts."
The chain, owned by Dine Brands, the parent company of Applebee's, could use the traffic bump.
It has struggled with comparable store sales, a key financial metric, and has underperformed compared with competitors including Denny's and Cracker Barrel.
The chain's new biscuit lineup includes a breakfast biscuit sandwich, a chicken biscuit sandwich, a strawberries-and cream biscuit, and biscuits and gravy. The biscuits are sold as combo plates or a la carte.
Kieran Donahue, the chain's chief marketing officer, said in a statement that adding biscuits was part of the chain's goal to offer diners "craveable and flavorful" items any time of day.
So I set out to see whether they were craveable during a Monday visit, the first day of the national launch. I'm a bit of a biscuit snob, having tried some of the best biscuits in the US, including the biscuits at Loveless Cafe in Nashville, Tennessee, and the tiny biscuits at Callie's Hot Little Biscuit in Charleston, South Carolina. I even went behind the scenes at Carl's Jr. years ago to learn how it made its scratch biscuits.
So I think I can spot a good biscuit.
Here's what I discovered.
I ordered the breakfast biscuit sandwich, a chicken biscuit sandwich, the strawberries-and-cream biscuit, a buttermilk biscuit with gravy, and a plain biscuit with butter.
Nancy Luna Insider
All the IHOPs in my town have shut down. The closest restaurant to my home was 2 miles away, in Santa Ana, California. It was next to a McDonald's.
The restaurant was empty at 5 p.m. I was seated by a friendly server who handed me a standard menu, as well as a laminated menu promoting the new biscuit lineup. She was very helpful and answered all of my questions.
The first thing I noticed as I scoured the menu was the wide range of prices for the various biscuit offerings, from $4 for an a la carte biscuit with butter to $15.50 for the chicken biscuit sandwich, which comes with one side dish.
Nancy Luna/Insider
I was stunned by the $15.50 price tag of the chicken biscuit sandwich.
I thought maybe it came with two side dishes, but it comes with a choice of only one of the following: hash browns, french fries, two buttermilk pancakes, or fresh fruit.
I started with the breakfast biscuit sandwich. The biscuit was much bigger than I'd expected and flatter. It looked more like an English muffin than a fluffy biscuit.
After the $7 deal ends on September 27, IHOP said pricing on the breakfast biscuit sandwich would vary.
Nancy Luna/Insider
The hefty breakfast sandwich is stuffed with two fried eggs, a slice of American cheese, two strips of hickory-smoked bacon, and cheese sauce. It's served with a choice of two buttermilk pancakes, hash browns, or seasonal fresh fruit.
I got the hash browns.
The biscuit had a dark-brown top and was shaped like a disc. The fluffy center was missing. If you're a cheese fan, you're going to like this meal, as the cheese sauce gave the sandwich an extra-savory kick.
Through September 26, IHOP is offering the breakfast biscuit sandwich with a side for $7. At that price, it's a steal of a deal for a full-service-dining breakfast meal. Having tried a few breakfast meals at McDonald's recently, I would recommend this meal deal for takeout.
It's far superior to the McDonald's offerings and cheaper. McDonald's charges $8.60 for a bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit meal that includes a hash brown and a beverage, according to the McDonald's app. (The search was in Orange, California, so pricing may vary elsewhere.)
Pro tip: The breakfast sandwich is advertised as coming with two fried eggs. But I learned you could order the sandwich with any egg style.
Nancy Luna/Insider
When I ordered the breakfast sandwich, the server asked me how I would like my eggs cooked.
I asked for fried eggs cooked over medium for a slightly runny egg.
The egg was cooked perfectly, and I enjoyed having a choice of egg preparation — a perk not offered at fast-food restaurants.
The chicken biscuit sandwich was a four-napkin adventure that ultimately required me to use a steak knife.
Nancy Luna/Insider
This innovative savory biscuit sandwich comes layered with a buttermilk fried chicken breast, hash browns, pickle chips, and country gravy. It comes with a choice of french fries, onion rings, fresh fruit, two buttermilk pancakes, or side salad.
I got the fries.
At $15.50, this meal comes with high expectations, and it failed miserably.
The sandwich is served with a steak knife, and after taking my first bite, I could see why. The hash browns and country gravy fused, making for a savory paste that caused the sandwich to fall apart after one bite.
I needed several napkins to wipe my fingers and mouth.
I forked and knifed it the rest of the way. I love pickles, but I couldn't taste them. The tiny chips were smashed inside the biscuit under a gooey mixture of gravy and hash browns. The fried chicken was greasy and thin on meat.
Overall, it was a tasty concoction. I give the culinary team at IHOP kudos for mixing gravy with hash browns. But despite being quite tasty, it was a messy, overpriced sandwich.
I'm not a fan of biscuits and gravy, but I liked the approach IHOP made with this dish because the biscuit wasn't slathered in it.
Nancy Luna/Insider
The biscuits-and-gravy dish is advertised on the menu as a $13.50 combo meal that comes with two eggs, two pork-sausage links, two hickory-smoked bacon strips, and hash browns.
I didn't want that much food, so I asked whether I could order the item a la carte. I was able to get one biscuit with gravy for $5. The biscuit was able to shine a bit more on this dish because it wasn't saturated with thick gravy. In fact, I wouldn't call this gravy. It was more like a tangy, country-style white sauce. It definitely seemed a bit "watered" down, which would probably offend aficionados of Southern gravy. But I liked it.
The a la carte buttermilk biscuit was saturated in butter and looked like it had been toasted on a flattop grill.
Nancy Luna/Insider
I ordered the biscuit a la carte so I could get a better taste of the biscuit without any other ingredients. I ordered it with a side of butter, which was completely unnecessary because the biscuit was already saturated with it. It was very greasy. They must be toasting it on a flattop grill.
The biscuit is flaky, but it didn't look like a biscuit. It looks like an English muffin and even had the nooks and crannies of one.
The best item came last. The strawberries-and-cream biscuit tasted like a strawberry biscuit shortcake — crazy good.
Nancy Luna/Insider
This was the most beautiful presentation of all the dishes. It came close to looking like the picture on the menu, except it could have used a lot more strawberries. I ordered the a la carte buttermilk biscuit, which is split and filled with cheesecake mousse, sliced strawberries, a drizzle of syrup, a sugary whipped topping, and powdered sugar.
In Canada, they use biscuits instead of sponge cakes to make strawberry shortcakes. I learned this from my many trips to Prince Edward Island, the location of my husband's family home. This dish reminded me of the many biscuit shortcakes I'd eaten while visiting.
The cheesecake mouse and syrup elevated the dish. I would recommend ordering this as a dessert for lunch or dinner. But it could also work as a sweet breakfast meal.
The only trouble I had with the dish was that I didn't know how to tackle it. I tried to cut it in half, but it fell apart, as the biscuit was very thick and doughy. Finally, I just used the side of my fork to cut my way into each piece, like I was eating a piece of cake or pie.
This dish cost $7.50 a la carte. As a combo dish served with two eggs, two strips of bacon or sausage links, and hash browns, it costs $12.
Overall, the biscuit menu is good for IHOP fans, but I don't see this food strategy enticing a new generation of customers to patronize the pancake chain.
Nancy Luna/Insider
IHOP has made efforts over the past several years to boost sales and lure new customers by introducing new foods to the menu.
The most famous marketing campaign came in 2018, when the chain said it would change its name to "IHOb" to showcase its new lineup of steak burgers. IHOP has been introducing menu items ever since, including burritos and bowls in 2021 and sweet-and-savory crepes in March.
Also in March, the chain refreshed its eggs-Benedict dishes by adding a high-quality hollandaise sauce. It also put two new items on its Ultimate Steakburgers menu.
With this menu, the culinary team at IHOP has done a fine job introducing some solid biscuit creations. They are sure to excite existing customers. But I don't think this lineup is good enough to sway new people to give IHOP a chance.
My visit was proof of that.
I left with a bit of heartburn and a bit of heartache for the brand.
I was at IHOP for more than an hour at dinnertime, and not a single other patron came in for dinner. The restaurant was sadly empty when I entered and after I left.
Oculus was a virtual reality company founded by Palmer Luckey.
It was acquired by Facebook, now known as Meta, in 2014 for $2 billion in cash and stock.
Virtual reality has been a major initiative for Meta.
Oculus was a virtual reality company founded by Palmer Luckey in 2012. It was acquired by Facebook, now known as Meta, in 2014 for $2 billion in cash and stock.
Luckey is the designer of the Oculus Rift VR headset that was later rebranded as Meta Quest. Meta has also released the Meta Quest 2 and Meta Quest Pro VR headsets and is planning to debut Meta Quest 3 this fall.
Luckey began designing and building VR headsets in 2009 and completed the first prototype for what would become the Oculus Rift headset the following year in his parents' garage in Long Beach, California, when he was 17 years old, according to a Smithsonian report.
He initially funded these products by fixing and reselling damaged iPhones and working jobs as a groundskeeper and computer repair technician, per the report. Video game pioneer John Carmack, who had been researching VR technology, asked Luckey to lend him a prototype of the Oculus Rift and wrote a glowing review of the product.
Luckey launched Oculus VR in April 2012, as well as a Kickstarter campaign seeking $250,000 to fund the project. The Oculus Kickstarter far surpassed its goal by September 2012 and raised nearly $2.5 million.
In June 2013, Oculus successfully closed $16 million in Series A funding co-lead by Spark Capital and Matrix Partners, Insider previously reported. Then, in December, the company raised $75 million in Series B funding led by Andreessen Horowitz.
The Oculus VR was the company's first consumer product. Before being acquired by Meta, Oculus also created the Oculus Rift DK1 and the Oculus Rift DK2.
"Designed by gamers, for gamers," read Oculus VR's original Kickstarter page. But Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg envisioned use cases beyond gaming when he purchased the company.
"After games, we're going to make Oculus a platform for many other experiences," Zuckerberg wrote in a blog post regarding the announcement of Meta's acquisiton of Oculus. Imagine enjoying a court side seat at a game, studying in a classroom of students and teachers all over the world or consulting with a doctor face-to-face — just by putting on goggles in your home."
Virtual reality has been a major initiative for Meta, including building the metaverse and developing new generations of VR headsets. The company has invested $36 billion in the metaverse, which is a general term for a VR environment where users can socialize, play games, shop, and interact in other ways.
But Meta's Reality Labs division, which is tasked with building the metaverse, has remained unprofitable. Last year, the division lost $13.7 billion.
Zuckerberg said earlier this year that the company will focus on cost-cutting and efficiency, and will continue spending on VR but will be "constantly shifting how we execute."
Meta also faces competition from Apple and others in the VR space. Apple is releasing a mixed-reality headset, called Vision Pro, next year. But some Meta VR users are balking at Vision Pro's price: The device comes with a hefty $3,400 price tag. Meta's VR headsets range from about $300 to $1,000.
Much of Meta's VR work was spearheaded by Carmack, who joined Oculus a year before it was acquired by Facebook and served as Meta's consulting chief technology office for VR initiatives. Carmack left Meta in December 2022 to launch an artificial intelligence startup. While at Meta, he was critical of the company's progress in advancing VR and augmented reality.
Luckey, who dropped out of college to launch Oculus when he was 20 years old, has also been critical of Meta's VR products since he was fired from Facebook in 2016 after making contributions to far-right political groups. He said he didn't think the metaverse was a "good product," but that it could be "amazing in the future."
After selling Oculus and leaving Meta, Luckey founded Anduril Industries, a security and defense technology startup that strives to make the U.S. military more high-tech. In 2022, the company garnered a $1.5 billion investment, at an $8 billion valuation, which puts its total funding at $2.3 billion.
Even so, the bloc has been snapping up a record level of Russian liquefied natural gas this year, seemingly to make up for the lost piped gas supply from the country. LNG is a supercooled version of natural gas that can be transported on ships.
EU countries have bought 40% more Russian LNG between January and July this year than in the same period of 2021 before the war — and the sweeping sanctions against Moscow — taking the volume shipped to 22 million cubic meters, per an analysis from Global Witness, a non-governmental organization, released on Wednesday.
The analysis used data from Kpler, a commodities data firm.
In fact, the EU bought over half, or 52%, of all 41.6 million cubic meters of LNG Russia exported this year — up from 49% and 39% in 2022 and 2021, respectively, according to Global Witness' analysis.
The other big buyers of Russian LNG are China, Japan, and South Korea.
The EU's imports of Russian LNG from January to July this year breached the record high last year — meaning the bloc could be buying an unprecedented amount of the fuel this year.
Global Witness projects the EU's Russian LNG purchases in 2023 to total nearly 5.3 billion euros, or $5.75 billion.
And there's a key reason why the bloc continues to snap up Russian LNG.
"Russian LNG shipments continue to flow to EU countries at least in part due to long-term contracts that were signed long before the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022," Kpler analyst Adam Bennett told Insider.
Bennett added that 90% of Russian LNG flows into the EU went to Belgium, France, the Netherlands, and Spain — all of whom hold contracts that extend "far into the next decade."
Still, Global Witness is calling for an EU ban on Russian LNG altogether.
"Buying Russian gas has the same impact as buying Russian oil. Both fund the war in Ukraine, and every euro means more bloodshed," said Jonathan Noronha-Gant, a senior fossil fuel campaigner at Global Witness. "While European countries decry the war, they're putting money into Putin's pockets."
The EU is aware of the issue.
In March, Kadri Simson, the EU's energy commissioner, called on member states to stop buying Russian LNG as it's a "reputational risk." Teresa Ribera, the Spanish energy minister, also called the situation "quite absurd" in the same month, per the news agency.
The European Commission did not respond to a request for comment from Insider.
Hawaii is the most expensive place for single people to live in the US, an analysis found.
Single people need an annual paycheck of $112,411 to make a living wage in the state, per the data.
The cost of living for single people is often higher than for couples.
The cost of living for single people is often dramatically higher than their coupled-up counterparts. But while the so-called "singles tax" is nothing new, single people in some US states may be faring better than others.
Mississippi was ranked the cheapest state in the US, where single people only needed to make $45,906 a year to earn a living wage, per the analysis.
The study used survey data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to calculate the cost of annual necessities for a single person state by state. The researchers then doubled the cost of necessities to factor in discretionary spending and savings.
Here's how the cost of living varies per state in five of the most expensive states.
An increasing number of women are choosing to undergo IVF and egg freezing treatments abroad.
Many also want to make a holiday out of it, and new startup Milvia wants to enable this trend.
Insider spoke to 34-year-old Rika Tajima about her experience using Milvia to freeze her eggs in London.
This as-told-to features Rika Tajima, a 34-year-old woman from Japan who works at a startup. She has detailed her journey using Milvia to go abroad to London, where she froze her eggs. This account has been edited for clarity.
I've had a relative call me worthless, even though I have tried really hard with my academics or work — all because I don't have a child. And that really bothered me.
I'm 34 now and have spent the bulk of my life really focused on studying and my career, making it difficult to balance my work and personal life.
My gynecologist, who is the same age as me, told me it was a good time to consider egg freezing and I decided to give it a go. But I felt guilty because I was going to be spending money and time that I wouldn't have had to spend if I just had a child before.
But I wanted to make more choices for myself in the future — and I don't know if I'll have a child, but I wanted to give myself that leeway.
I looked up multiple egg-freezing hospitals in Japan and some of them also worked for single women, not just couples. I went to one, but it felt like were treating me like a customer rather than a patient, something that made me feel uncomfortable.
Then, late last year, I attended the SkyDeck accelerator program for startup founders in Berkeley. It was there I met Abhi Ghavalkar, the founder of a startup called Milvia, which aimed to dramatically improve the egg-freezing process.
Milvia calls itself the Airbnb of fertility tourism. It books trips, including flights and accommodation, for patients who want to undergo egg freezing and IVF abroad. It has partnerships with clinics in London so patients don't have the hassle of finding a doctor themselves.
On average, egg freezing in the US can cost $11,000 for an initial treatment, excluding medication and monthly storage costs; the total process, including storage costs, usually hits $30,000 to $40,000. In the UK, treatment costs around $4000 on average, excluding monthly storage costs — but can stretch up to $10,000 if including storage, medication, and thawing costs.
It was then I thought: "Why not?"
I thought I could make this into a positive experience — and get that negative connotation about egg freezing out of my head.
Making a vacation out of my journey
London appealed to me from a tourism point of view but also because egg-freezing options are more researched and well-established than in Japan.
Before coming to the UK, I had consultations with Milvia, and paid them to book my Airbnb, flights, as well as a concierge service. I chose one on the cheaper end, in West London, near a school. I actually had a fridge in my room as well, which was really helpful because I needed to store some of my medication there. Milvia has partnered with clinics in the UK, so that took the hassle out of the process of researching them.
Ahead of my trip, I had some medications prescribed to me, and I took those twice daily in the morning and evening. On my second day in London, I had my first visit to the hospital for a baseline scan. The next day, I started self-injecting in the stomach. Five days later, I went to the hospital for a second scan. They said that I could start my additional medication. Now I was self-injecting in my stomach once in the morning, and once in the evening. I also went to the hospital the following weekend as well.
Depending on how I was feeling in the morning, I used to talk to Akash Ghavalkar, the COO of Milvia, about how I'd like to spend my day. Sometimes I would go to a coworking space to focus on my work, but if I wanted to sightsee. Milvia would set up the visits and help me with booking train tickets and tour guides.
I spent about half my time working and half my time as a tourist.
Rika at her graffiti workshop.
Rika Tajima.
Milvia also booked my plane, which was a direct flight, but the ticket was flexible because I may have needed to stay longer if my eggs weren't ready for retrieval by the scheduled date.
I felt anxious before retrieving my eggs — but having support around me helped
In Japan, couples that are struggling to conceive can get public health insurance to subsidize up to 70% of their fertility treatments such as IVF. However, if you're single, there aren't as many coverage options for egg-freezing costs across the whole country.
The nurse in the UK taught me how to inject myself with medication, and showed me some videos. I was fiddling around and it took me around 30 minutes on the first try. It was still a bit scary after that.
My egg retrieval process went as scheduled. I took all my medication. The Milvia staff were there as I was the first patient on their program, so that helped my anxiety, which I think was caused by my hormones. All of a sudden I was scared about whether it would work out.
The process took under an hour overall, and then I went back to my accommodation to sleep. I flew back to Japan on the Saturday, and in the days between that, I was taking walks and relaxing.
When I came back to Japan, I noticed that people think of me as someone who is more serious about their life decisions. My friends asked me how it was and they're considering egg freezing more seriously. My parents were happy to hear that it went well. My 89-year-old grandpa liked the fact that I traveled to London, it made it more of a celebratory event.
But sometimes, it felt a bit lonely. I'm interested in the community aspect that Milvia can provide.
When I had my first self-injection in London, it would have been nice to have a nurse with me. Speaking to friends during my mood swings would have been helpful.
For me, it was more expensive than it would have been if I had frozen my eggs in Japan. But we have a lot of natural disasters in Japan, and I also travel a lot for work. So I thought storing the eggs overseas would be a nice option.
Overall, the procedures and medicine cost around $6000, the accommodation and Milvia service fee was $3000, and flights were $2000.
The expenses for the holiday were a bit of a reach for me — but it was worth it because it made for a positive and memorable experience.
Are you interested in sharing your experience with fertility technology, or traveling abroad to freeze your eggs or undergo IVF? Contact this reporter atrkanetkar@insider.com.
Winnebago's newest Access travel trailer is its cheapest yet at $29,600.
Winnebago
Sales of travel trailers — and RVs in general — have slumped since the industry's heyday during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Amid this decline, Winnebago has unveiled a new cheap travel trailer: the $29,600 Access.
Take a look inside the entry-level RV available November 2023.
Winnebago has unveiled its cheapest entry-level travel trailer yet in a bid to attract budget travelers amid the legacy RV maker's slump in sales.
The RVing boom during the COVID-19 pandemic was a gold rush for companies like Winnebago. But these days, sales aren't looking as red hot anymore. Shipments for these homes on wheels have dropped 47.7% from 2023 compared to 2022, according to July data from the RV Industry Association. And looking at travel trailers specifically, shipments have slid 51.9% during that same period.
Unsurprisingly, companies like Winnebago have taken a hit.
Winnebago
In June, the RV maker's parent company — which also oversees Grand Design RV and Newmar — announced its third-quarter 2023 revenues of $900.8 million, an over 38% drop from the same period last year.
"Recent years have been some of the highest demand in industry history, so some normalization of RV shipments is not unexpected," the company told Insider in an email.
Despite this, Winnebago says it is "optimistic about the long-term consumer engagement in the outdoors."
Winnebago
Amid its dip in sales, Winnebago unveiled a $150,000 refresh of its cheapest popular camper van in July.
And now, it's going the affordable route yet again with its latest product: the $29,600 Access.
Winnebago
Despite all the social media attention camper vans have received over the past few years, travel trailers still make up the majority of RV sales.
The Access was designed to be an economical option — think the Nissan Versa or Toyota Corolla of trailers.
Winnebago
Before this model, Winnebago's least expensive trailer was the $37,200 Macro Minnie.
The trailer can sleep up to eight people, according to the RV maker.
Winnebago
Eight is a recurring number — the trailer also comes with eight of what Winnebago calls its "premium amenities." This includes a 200-watt solar panel, WiFi systems, electric tongue jacks, and water tank heaters.
And inside, it looks as comfortable as any large travel trailer.
Winnebago
There are several floor plan options. All have a distinct queen bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, and dinette. But while some floor plans have bunk beds, others just have a fold-out couch (or both).
There's even an outdoor kitchen on some models.
Winnebago
And if you love modern luxuries, you'll love the porcelain toilet. It's certainly a step up from the plastic composting toilets many camper vans have.
The skylights bring in plenty of natural light while the interior and exterior LED lights brighten up the home at night.
Winnebago
And there's plenty of under-bed storage, which can double as a furry friend's little bedroom.
The trailer will make its official debut at America's Largest RV Show in Hershey, Pennsylvania in September.
Winnebago
If you want an Access for yourself, you'll have to wait a few months. The trailer will go on sale in November 2023.
The first The Cheesecake Factory restaurant opened in Beverly Hills, California, in 1978.
Its CEO and founder, David Overton, opened it to promote his mother's cheesecake business.
The restaurant took off. It went public in 1992 and is a top-40 chain in the US in terms of sales.
The Cheesecake Factory is one of the top 40 restaurant chains in the US, known for its voluminous menu of cheesecakes, pastas, sandwiches, and appetizers, such as its famed avocado egg rolls.
But fans may not realize that the publicly traded company, with a market cap of nearly $1.7 billion, was a family-run bakery business for years before it scaled across the US and abroad.
"Growing up, it was all about cheesecake. And we knew people loved it," Cheesecake Factory CEO David Overton said in a video on the company's website.
Overton is referring to his mom's cheesecake business. On and off for years, Evelyn Overton sold her cheesecakes to local restaurants in Detroit and Los Angeles. But her wholesale bakery never took off. Many restaurants scoffed at the idea of selling flavored cheesecakes.
So the younger Overton, a musician at the time, decided to open a restaurant in 1978 to showcase his mom's variety of cheesecakes.
He had no restaurant experience. But he had determination.
"We knew we had the Cadillac of cheesecakes, and we knew that everyone loved our cheesecake," he said in the video. "I've got to get our cake to people."
Over the next 45 years, Overton turned his mom's cheesecakes into a national sensation. Slices and whole cakes are sold not only in restaurants but also in supermarkets around the US, including the grocery sections of Target and Walmart.
It all started with a recipe clipping from a Detroit newspaper.
Take a closer look at The Cheesecake Factory's early beginnings.
Evelyn Overton, with her husband, Oscar, started making cheesecakes for local restaurants in Detroit in the 1940s.
The Cheesecake Factory
In the 1940s, Evelyn Overton found a dessert recipe in a local Detroit newspaper that inspired her to create her "original" cheesecake.
She tweaked the recipe and started making her own cakes. She eventually opened her own bakery.
"Everyone loved it," David Overton said. "It became famous."
In time, she gave up the business to focus on raising her two children, David and Renee. She moved her baking equipment into her basement kitchen and continued selling cheesecakes to Detroit restaurants.
Source: The Cheesecake Factory
"Growing up, it was all about cheesecake," David Overton said about his mother's cheesecakes.
David Overton in the late 1970s.
The Cheesecake Factory
In the late 1970s, David Overton moved to San Francisco to study law. He persuaded his parents, who were then in their 50s, to move to Los Angeles to give his mom's cheesecake business another chance.
Source: The Cheesecake Factory
With the last of their savings, Oscar and Evelyn Overton packed up their car and drove cross-country to Los Angeles. They had $10,000 to their name.
The Cheesecake Factory
In 1972, at the behest of their son, Oscar and Evelyn Overton moved to Los Angeles and opened a 700-square-foot commercial bakery in North Hollywood.
"This was probably the size of one of our walk-ins today," David Overton said in the video.
His parents opened The Cheesecake Factory bakery in 1972 and began selling Evelyn Overton's cheesecakes to restaurants throughout Los Angeles.
They worked around-the-clock attempting to turn her lifelong dream of owning a successful business into a reality.
Source: The Cheesecake Factory
David Overton, a musician in the late '70s, moved to Los Angeles to help his parents promote the business.
David Overton showcases his mother's desserts at a trade show.
The Cheesecake Factory
Evelyn Overton developed more than 20 varieties of her cheesecake and other desserts. Her husband was the salesperson. He drove from Santa Barbara to San Diego selling his wife's desserts to restaurants across Southern California.
While their business found modest success, the patriarch would get the same feedback: "No one needs more than one flavor of cheesecake."
This frustrated David Overton, especially as some restaurant owners began switching to other suppliers that made less-expensive cheesecakes that he saw as inferior.
"Literally for $0.05, some of these restaurants would switch to another brand," David Overton said.
Source: The Cheesecake Factory
"We knew we had the Cadillac of cheesecakes," David Overton said. So he decided the only way to showcase his mom's cheesecakes would be to open a restaurant. He called it The Cheesecake Factory.
Staff of The Cheesecake Factory in Beverly Hills in the late '70s or early '80s.
The Cheesecake Factory
David Overton, a musician in San Francisco at the time, moved to Los Angeles in the late '70s to help his parents with the bakery business.
"I have never seen people work so hard. And so I moved down to Los Angeles to help them," he said.
To prove diner demand for his mom's desserts, he decided he had to open his own restaurant in 1978. He had no restaurant experience. David signed the Beverly Hills restaurant lease in 1977, and it opened on February 25, 1978. He named the restaurant The Cheesecake Factory after his parent's bakery.
On opening day, he was so nervous he didn't open the restaurant until 2 p.m. to avoid the lunch rush.
Source: The Cheesecake Factory
The first two-sided menu was light on options by the chain's standards today. The restaurant sold breakfast and lunch entrées. A slice of cheesecake cost $1.25.
The Cheesecake Factory
Because he lacked restaurant experience, David Overton "created a simple and straightforward menu with generous portions," The Cheesecake Factory told Insider.
Many of the scratch dishes were things he knew how to cook.
The original menu was one page with two sides. One side featured lunch and dinner options such as burgers, hamburger steak, quiche of the day, and roasted chicken. Salads and grilled and open-faced sandwiches included classic American staples such as crab Louie and tuna salad. One dish, Oscar's special sardine sandwich, was named after his father.
Breakfast featured egg dishes, cereal, toast, and espresso drinks.
Source: The Cheesecake Factory
Some of the cheesecake flavors were chocolate chip, peanut butter, mocha chocolate chip, and fresh strawberry.
The Cheesecake Factory
The original dessert menu featured a variety of baked goods and desserts, including cheesecake, carrot cake, zucchini cake, strudel, whipped-cream cakes, chocolate-mousse pie, black forest cake, cream puffs, ice-cream sundaes, milkshakes, banana splits, and Belgian waffles topped with ice cream and whipped cream. The ice cream on the menu was billed as "extra rich."
Prices ranged from $0.85 for a dish of ice cream to $1.95 for the chocolate-mousse pie.
Source: The Cheesecake Factory
When The Cheesecake Factory opened in Beverly Hills in 1978, it featured a salad bar.
The Cheesecake Factory
The Beverly Hills salad bar was called the Fabulous Factory Salad Bar. The cost of a build-your-own salad was $1.95 for a medium plate or $2.95 for a large salad plate.
Salad bars at this time were more closely associated with steak houses. The first four Cheesecake Factory restaurants had salad bars. It stopped adding them when the fifth restaurant opened in 1991 in Washington, DC.
Source: The Cheesecake Factory
Linda Candioty, a test baker turned company vice president, has been with The Cheesecake Factory since the opening of the Beverly Hills restaurant.
Linda Candioty in 1978.
The Cheesecake Factory
Candioty started working for Evelyn Overton in the bakery in 1977. She became the restaurant's first hostess and has held a variety of key positions within the company over the years. Today, she is the company's vice president of guest experience.
"She knew how to please the guest," David Overton said. "I loved operating. I love being in the background. She loved being in the foreground."
Source: The Cheesecake Factory
Linda's fudge cake is one of the desserts that Candioty created while working as a test baker.
The Cheesecake Factory
The fudge cake remains one of The Cheesecake Factory's most beloved desserts, the company told Insider.
David Overton had no initial plans to open a second restaurant. But he soon grew to love the business. In 1983, The Cheesecake Factory opened its second restaurant.
The Cheesecake Factory
The new location was in Marina del Rey, an affluent Los Angeles-area coastal community.
David Overton immediately fell in love with the location.
"I went there and I said, 'Wow, who wouldn't want to sit out here and have a wonderful meal,'" he said.
Candioty, in the company video, described the bay location this way: "On the water. On the beach. Palm trees. Volleyball. Windsurfers. It was amazing. And it was a zoo from the beginning."
The restaurant was slammed all summer.
"And we became an instant hit. It took us about five years to recover from that opening," she said.
Original Beverly Hills servers such as Mary D'Astugues wore café aprons. She would later become a crucial player in implementing restaurant designs.
Mary D'Astugues.
The Cheesecake Factory
After the success of the Marina del Rey restaurant, David Overton chose another coastal spot for its next location, Redondo Beach, California.
After that, David Overton set a goal to open at least one restaurant every year or every two years.
"So we started to grow because of our success and because people loved our product and our culture grew right along with it," he said in the company video.
The Cheesecake Factory's famous murals started with the opening of the Redondo Beach restaurant in 1988.
The Cheesecake Factory
The Redondo Beach restaurant had a lot of empty wall space. So David Overton turned to employee D'Astugues, who was known as an artist. He asked her to paint a ceiling mural and one behind the bar.
She painted while the restaurant was under construction.
"David really liked the aesthetic that Mary's artwork added to the restaurant, and from that point forward, as each new Cheesecake Factory opened in cities across the country, Mary painted custom murals for each location," the company told Insider.
Source: The Cheesecake Factory
The Cheesecake Factory went public in 1992.
Associated Press
David Overton, in a 2011 interview with CNN, said his parents were able to semiretire as the restaurants were performing well in the first several years.
"Our investors were making a lot of money," he said. "In September 1992, we went public. The stock opened at $20 and went to $27.25 the first day."
He became the CEO and chair of the board when the company went public. Before that, he was the company's president. He is the only CEO the chain has ever had.
The Cheesecake Factory ranks as the 37th-largest chain in the US in terms of sales on Technomic's top-500 list. Among casual dining chains, it's ranked No. 11.
Source: The Cheesecake Factory, Technomic, and CNN
Many items on the menu are named after people. Adam's peanut-butter-cup fudge ripple, for example, is named after the founder's son Adam.
The Cheesecake Factory
This cheesecake favorite combines all of Adam's favorite childhood treats: Butterfingers, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, caramel, and the chain's classic cheesecake.
Source: The Cheesecake Factory
The "Evelyn's Favorite Pasta" dish is named after David Overton's mom.
The Cheesecake Factory
The dish is made with broccoli, zucchini, asparagus, peppers, tomato, onion, garlic, and fresh herbs. It's tossed with Parmesan.
The avocado egg roll, a top-selling appetizer, was inspired by David Overton's dining travels.
The Cheesecake Factory
Avocado egg rolls are a top seller on the menu.
The inspiration for it came after David Overton tasted a crunchy avocado cheese straw while dining at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills. Avocado was also used as a garnish on the dish.
It made him wonder whether The Cheesecake Factory could make an egg roll stuffed with chunks of avocado. Experimenting commenced, and after multiple tries, The Cheesecake Factory's avocado egg rolls were developed. Their exact debut is unknown, but they've been around since the late '90s or very early 2000s, the company said.
Source: The Cheesecake Factory
In 2012, The Cheesecake Factory opened its first international location, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
The Cheesecake Factory
The restaurant opened in the Dubai Mall under a licensing agreement with Alshaya Trading Co.
Today, The Cheesecake Factory has 212 domestic restaurants and 31 international locations. None of the US locations are franchised. International restaurants are licensed locations. This is an unusual tactic for a large publicly traded company, which typically grows through franchising. Other publicly traded chains that don't franchise include Chipotle and Shake Shack.
Source: The Cheesecake Factory
In 2016, the first Cheesecake Factory in Asia opened, in Shanghai.
The Cheesecake Factory
Some of the 31 international locations have opened in top tourist destinations around the world. In 2013, The Cheesecake Factory opened a restaurant in San Juan, Puerto Rico. In 2016, the company opened its first restaurant in Asia. The location opened in Disneytown at the Shanghai Disney Resort.
Source: The Cheesecake Factory
The Cheesecake Factory's famous "brown bread" launched in grocery stores in 2018.
The Cheesecake Factory
The bread launched under the Cheesecake Factory at Home brand. Other restaurant items sold in grocery stores include a handful of whole frozen cheesecakes, including the original cheesecake and the strawberry-topped original cheesecake.
Source: The Cheesecake Factory
The Cheesecake Factory was one of the first national restaurant chains to work with DoorDash.
Screenshot
To gain market share, DoorDash went after large, established restaurant chains. Early partnerships included The Cheesecake Factory, Buffalo Wild Wings, and Wendy's. While other restaurant chains have expanded delivery services to include other apps such as Uber Eats, Cheesecake Factory remains an exclusive delivery partner with DoorDash.
In 2019, The Cheesecake Factory expanded with the acquisition of Fox Restaurant Concepts, which owns the brands North Italia and Flower Child.
Yelp/North Italia
"It became evident that the combination of two of the most experiential and entrepreneurial restaurant companies could drive greater value as one organization," David Overton said in a statement.
In 2020, the private-equity firm Roark Capital, whose fast-food empire includes Arby's and Jamba, invested $200 million in The Cheesecake Factory.
Insider
The April 2020 investment helped The Cheesecake Factory's "liquidity position" as it navigated the COVID-19 pandemic, David Overton said at the time.
In June 2021, The Cheesecake Factory reacquired most of the equity stake purchased by Roark Capital in a transaction valued at $457.3 million, according to the trade magazine Restaurant Business.
The newest restaurant opened in Corpus Christi, Texas, in December. It features a custom mural by D'Astugues.
The Cheesecake Factory
D'Astugues has painted murals for restaurants in the US and abroad, including locations in the Middle East, Mexico, and Asia.
Source: The Cheesecake Factory
Today, the Cheesecake Factory menu has more than 250 items across 21 pages.
Associated Press
In a December Vox article, the writer Alex Abad-Santos called The Cheesecake Factory an "uncanny" chain whose success was built on defying standard industry rules.
The chain's massive menu is one of those industry-defying traditions. Most chains preach operational efficiency by providing a limited menu of dishes that are all profit generators.
But not at The Cheesecake Factory.
"The menu was seemingly written by someone who was hungry for everything they could think of but couldn't name what they actually wanted at that moment," Abad-Santos said. "The rules that govern regular restaurants have no power over The Cheesecake Factory. If there is one rule at The Cheesecake Factory, it's that the conventional wisdom of the restaurant industry — keeping costs low, concepts simple, and menus under 200 items — is meant to be ignored."
This year, The Cheesecake Factory appeared for the 10th time on Fortune's list of the best companies to work for.
Associated Press
Fortune noted the chain's Wages Now program, which helps financially strapped employees receive 50% of their pay the following workday, instead of waiting for their semimonthly paychecks. Fortune added that the chain had maintained flat healthcare premiums since 2021.
Still, the chain does not have a perfect record when it comes to dealing with labor disputes.
In June 2018, the chain was found jointly liable in a wage-theft case in which California labor authorities fined The Cheesecake Factory and its janitorial subcontractor nearly $4.6 million. The agency said janitorial workers at eight Southern California restaurants were due $3.94 million in unpaid wages.
The case is ongoing.
"While the Company did not employ any of these individuals, the state also filed the claim against the company," The Cheesecake Factory told Insider in a statement. "On November 10, 2022, the parties participated in voluntary mediation and reached a tentative settlement on the wage citation. The settlement is subject to documentation and final agency approval."
Candioty, the server turned top Cheesecake Factory executive, said employees "are still having fun like we did in that one little café in Beverly Hills."
Today, the chain has 41,125 employees.
The Cheesecake Factory
"We're so different and yet we're in our hearts, it's still exactly the same company," Candioty said. "Our menu is still made from scratch. Everything fresh — back then and today. We're still here for our guests every single day. We have fun."
David Overton said: "We continue to try to function as a family business."
