Informa Connect Launches First Globie Awards for Global Foodservice

Informa Connect named five winners on October 19, 2026, for the first-ever Globie Awards, a new global foodservice honor backed by The Coca-Cola Company. The ceremony debuts during the 2026 Global Restaurant Leadership Conference (GRLC) at the JW Marriott in Cannes, France, November 4-6.

The awards will recognize what Informa Connect calls the most innovative and impactful leaders and brands shaping global foodservice. Five companies take home the inaugural honors. The launch rides a wave of international expansion that has pushed chains into markets with sharply different supply chains and consumer preferences.

The timing is deliberate. The ceremony lands as the Technomic Top 500 (the annual ranking of the largest U.S. chain restaurant companies by sales) documents another difficult year for the sector. Top 500 chain sales slowed again in 2025 as consumers pulled back on dining out. Not every category suffered equally: coffee, beverages and snacks, and chicken kept growing while the broader market stalled.

Why launch a global award now?

Informa Connect positions the Globies as an answer to a structural shift. Restaurant operators face unprecedented international expansion, and global chains must manage supply chain disruptions alongside consumer preferences that vary market by market. An award program built around cross-border performance, rather than domestic scale alone, signals which operators are solving that puzzle.

The Coca-Cola Company's role as sponsor fits. Beverage growth is one of the few bright spots in the Top 500 data, and a beverage-major sponsor aligns the new franchise with the categories still posting gains.

What does the Cannes ceremony cover?

The program spans five winning companies, each cited for remarkable international success. Informa Connect has not framed the awards around menu innovation or unit counts alone; the stated criteria center on leadership and brand impact across diverse global markets.

The venue itself does some signaling. The JW Marriott in Cannes, better known for the film festival than for foodservice summits, will host GRLC from November 4-6, with the Globie ceremony positioned as a landmark first-edition event.

The winners will be celebrated at the conference, and the full profiles of the five honorees are being presented through Informa Connect's Content Spotlight coverage.

For an industry still digesting a second consecutive year of slowing Top 500 sales, the Globies offer a different scoreboard: not who grew fastest at home, but who expanded best abroad. Whether the award gains traction as a benchmark will depend on the second edition.