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The major restaurant point-of-sale technology provider Toast Inc. early Wednesday reported revenues of $819 million for the first quarter of 2023, a 53% increase over the same period a year earlier. Recurring revenue for the quarter totaled $987 million, a 55% increase from a year earlier.
In addition, Toast grew its merchant locations in the hotly competitive restaurant POS market by more than 5,500 for the quarter, bringing its total locations to 85,000, a nearly 40% increase from a year ago. Profits totaled $174 million, up 96% year-over-year from the first quarter of 2022.
Toast also announced the launch of Toast Tables, a reservation and waitlist-management solution integrated with the Toast Point of Sale. The product launch expands Toast’s collaboration with Google to tap into a potential pool of millions of guests searching for restaurants and enable them to book a reservation through Toast Tables directly on Google.
In addition, Toast announced it has entered Canada, Ireland, and the United Kingdom.
“Toast’s first quarter results marked a strong start to the year, coming in ahead of expectations thanks to the consistent execution of our core strategy,” said Toast chief executive Chris Comparato said in a prepared statement. “Through exciting new products like Toast Tables and ongoing investment in our platform, we remain committed to serving the restaurant industry in increasingly meaningful ways.”
Toast projects revenues in the range of $920 million to $950 million for the second quarter.
In related news, rival restaurant POS provider Tabit Technologies Inc. has integrated online restaurant-reservation service OpenTable into its platform. The integration, which was tested earlier this year, is now available to all OpenTable and Tabit restaurant customers.
The integration enables restaurants to pair Tabit’s spending data with OpenTable’s booking data to give restaurants a more holistic view of their performance. In addition, real-time information input from servers will be available to front-of-house staff at Tabit restaurants so hosts can automatically see when guests have been seated and which course of the meal guests are eating. This capability will help restaurants minimize wait times and optimize table turnover and revenue, Tabit says.
The integration will also enable restaurant staff to identify which guests are new, regulars, or top spenders so the staff can tailor the dining experience accordingly.
“Tabit’s integration with OpenTable has been a game-changer for our guest-management operations,” Ryan Scarpa, general manager of YOLO, a restaurant operated by The Restaurant Group Plc, a United Kingdom-based operator of multiple restaurants. “Our servers now have direct access to the guest’s profile, so they can tailor their dining experience from celebrations and allergy considerations to food and seating preferences.”
