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XYZ's Square Deepens Ideal Nutrition Partnership as Franchise Expands
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Key Takeaways
Square will support Ideal Nutrition's franchise expansion across retail, loyalty, marketing and payroll.
Ideal Nutrition uses Square across 17 stores, with three more under construction and 20 targeted by 2026.
Square's AI could help forecast meal orders, while food-and-beverage GPV rose 20% in Q2 2026.
Block Inc.’s (XYZ - Free Report) Square has renewed and expanded its partnership with Ideal Nutrition as the Florida-based prepared-meal company prepares for national franchise expansion. Ideal Nutrition operates 17 retail stores, has three more under construction and expects to reach 20 locations by the end of 2026 while evaluating markets outside Florida. Square will continue to serve as the unified commerce platform for its retail stores, franchise operations, loyalty program, marketing and payroll.
Ideal Nutrition has used Square in every retail store since opening its first location. Its current setup includes Square Register, Square Handheld and Square for Franchises, which gives corporate management a centralized view while allowing franchisees to manage their own Square accounts. Square’s ‘Menu’ feature also helps the company manage a rotating lineup of more than 40 meals across stores and ordering channels.
The partnership extends beyond payments. Ideal Nutrition connects Square with DoorDash, Uber Eats and Grubhub, uses Square Online for same-day pickup and relies on Square Payroll, Shifts, Loyalty and Marketing. Its email campaigns have generated open rates of about 47%. Since the start of 2025, customers have earned more than 17 million loyalty points and redeemed over 64%, resulting in more than 110,000 gifted meals.
The next step could further deepen Square’s role. Ideal Nutrition is exploring Square’s AI capabilities for store-level meal-order forecasting based on sales trends and seasonal history. The initiative aligns with Square’s broader efforts to use AI to help sellers automate operations, improve efficiency and make smarter decisions using data available across its platform. It could also deepen Ideal Nutrition’s use of Square’s integrated ecosystem as the company expands its franchise footprint.
Ideal Nutrition’s expansion comes as Square gains momentum among food-and-beverage and larger sellers. In the second quarter of 2026, Square Gross Payment Volume (GPV) rose 13% year over year to $72.8 billion, while food-and-beverage GPV increased 20%. Square gross profit also grew 13% to $1.16 billion, driven by stronger payments volume and increased software adoption.
Other Recent Partnerships
Ideal Nutrition follows several recent Square wins. Whit’s Frozen Custard moved its 100 locations across 11 states onto Square Register, Square KDS, Square for Restaurants and Square for Franchises, with estimated annual savings of about $2,000 per franchisee location. In the U.K., Parsons Bakery adopted Square across 48 shops in 10 counties, bringing payments, loyalty, marketing and online ordering onto a single platform.
Cascadia Pizza Co. also returned to Square in August 2026, using Square for Restaurants and Square Franchise Suite across a business that includes 17 corporate restaurants, franchises, food trucks and catering operations across five states. Together, these deals highlight Square’s gaining traction with multi-location and franchise food businesses that need more than payment processing.
For Block, the Ideal Nutrition expansion is particularly meaningful because it demonstrates how an existing seller can deepen its use of Square’s ecosystem as it grows, potentially supporting higher software adoption, seller retention and payment volume over time.
Over the past three months, shares of this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company have rallied 5.8% compared with the industry's growth of 21%.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for BILL’s fiscal 2027 earnings per share (EPS) has moved 37 cents northward to $3.69 over the past month.
The consensus estimate for MDB’s fiscal 2027 EPS has moved up 44 cents to $6.50 over the past month.
Note: Anything related to earnings presented in this write-up represents funds from operations (FFO), a widely used metric to gauge the performance of REITs.
View the Zacks #1 Rank List
Image: Shutterstock
XYZ's Square Deepens Ideal Nutrition Partnership as Franchise Expands
Key Takeaways
Block Inc.’s (XYZ - Free Report) Square has renewed and expanded its partnership with Ideal Nutrition as the Florida-based prepared-meal company prepares for national franchise expansion. Ideal Nutrition operates 17 retail stores, has three more under construction and expects to reach 20 locations by the end of 2026 while evaluating markets outside Florida. Square will continue to serve as the unified commerce platform for its retail stores, franchise operations, loyalty program, marketing and payroll.
Ideal Nutrition has used Square in every retail store since opening its first location. Its current setup includes Square Register, Square Handheld and Square for Franchises, which gives corporate management a centralized view while allowing franchisees to manage their own Square accounts. Square’s ‘Menu’ feature also helps the company manage a rotating lineup of more than 40 meals across stores and ordering channels.
The partnership extends beyond payments. Ideal Nutrition connects Square with DoorDash, Uber Eats and Grubhub, uses Square Online for same-day pickup and relies on Square Payroll, Shifts, Loyalty and Marketing. Its email campaigns have generated open rates of about 47%. Since the start of 2025, customers have earned more than 17 million loyalty points and redeemed over 64%, resulting in more than 110,000 gifted meals.
The next step could further deepen Square’s role. Ideal Nutrition is exploring Square’s AI capabilities for store-level meal-order forecasting based on sales trends and seasonal history. The initiative aligns with Square’s broader efforts to use AI to help sellers automate operations, improve efficiency and make smarter decisions using data available across its platform. It could also deepen Ideal Nutrition’s use of Square’s integrated ecosystem as the company expands its franchise footprint.
Ideal Nutrition’s expansion comes as Square gains momentum among food-and-beverage and larger sellers. In the second quarter of 2026, Square Gross Payment Volume (GPV) rose 13% year over year to $72.8 billion, while food-and-beverage GPV increased 20%. Square gross profit also grew 13% to $1.16 billion, driven by stronger payments volume and increased software adoption.
Other Recent Partnerships
Ideal Nutrition follows several recent Square wins. Whit’s Frozen Custard moved its 100 locations across 11 states onto Square Register, Square KDS, Square for Restaurants and Square for Franchises, with estimated annual savings of about $2,000 per franchisee location. In the U.K., Parsons Bakery adopted Square across 48 shops in 10 counties, bringing payments, loyalty, marketing and online ordering onto a single platform.
Cascadia Pizza Co. also returned to Square in August 2026, using Square for Restaurants and Square Franchise Suite across a business that includes 17 corporate restaurants, franchises, food trucks and catering operations across five states. Together, these deals highlight Square’s gaining traction with multi-location and franchise food businesses that need more than payment processing.
For Block, the Ideal Nutrition expansion is particularly meaningful because it demonstrates how an existing seller can deepen its use of Square’s ecosystem as it grows, potentially supporting higher software adoption, seller retention and payment volume over time.
Over the past three months, shares of this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company have rallied 5.8% compared with the industry's growth of 21%.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Stocks to Consider
Some better-ranked stocks from the internet-software sector are BILL Holdings, Inc. (BILL - Free Report) and MongoDB (MDB - Free Report) , each sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks Rank #1 stocks here.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for BILL’s fiscal 2027 earnings per share (EPS) has moved 37 cents northward to $3.69 over the past month.
The consensus estimate for MDB’s fiscal 2027 EPS has moved up 44 cents to $6.50 over the past month.
Note: Anything related to earnings presented in this write-up represents funds from operations (FFO), a widely used metric to gauge the performance of REITs.