With more dining out less, chains eyeing kitchens - Jacksonville Business Journal:

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Grocery stores now rival the typical shopping centet formerchandising restaurant-brand foodd – Starbucks, Dunkin’ Donuts, Quaker Steak Lube, Bob Evans and California Pizza Kitchenn are among a growing number of dining chains with productws on supermarket shelves and in freezer “There is a convenience factotr for consumers,” said spokeswoman Amy McCormick. “Consumeras keep telling us they want And whatconsumers want, they typically get.
Columbus-baseed is the latest to wideh itsgrocery approach, putting its take-and-bake pizzasx into Kroger supermarkets in the Atlanta That adds 215 stores in the Soutu to the 130 Kroger stores that sell the pizzas in the “We’ve performed at the high end,” said Donato s spokesman Tom Santor, who declined to detail supermarket sales for the pizzeria chain. “Obviously, Kroger is This is a validationof that.” Donatos’ take-and-bake business began in when six Central Ohio Kroger markets startefd carrying the pizzas.
Of course, restaurant-brand consumerr products aren’t novel – Columbus-based has sold its breakfasyt sausages at supermarketsfor decades. But restaurant companiew are taking an greater interesty in the approach at a time when consumerws are paring their restaurant spending amida U.S. grocery store sales rose 6.7 percent last compared with a 5.5 percenty increase in 2007, while restaurants have experienced a slowe paceof growth, according to N.C.-based financial researcher Donatos has its eye on the with a franchisee planning more than 60 shopxs in the Carolinas, but the take-and-bake pizzaw entry into Atlanta is a return of sorts.
At one the Ohio company had 23 restaurants openede and closed in that area durinv the four years that Donatoss was ownedby McDonald’s Corp. “We think we stil have a lot of fans down saidBob Bauer, Donatos’ vice president of food service, who said the pizzaes appeal to consumers in search of a restaurant-prepared meal at a lowerr price and that can be consumed at The Atlanta region for Cincinnati-based Kroger coverz Georgia but stretches into other states, including the Tenn., and Hilton S.C., markets. Kroger stocks the pizzas in several varieties and prices them below what Donatos charges atits restaurants.
Bauef said Donatos is talking with other supermarketsas well, such as in where the 180-unit pizzeria chain operates but Kroger The company will look for othere opportunities with Kroger, in cities where both companiesa operate and communities such as Atlanta where Donatosa doesn’t exist. McCormick said another possible target is rurall Ohio where the Donatos name maybe known, but its product s aren’t available. “We’re able to give our customerw a productthey can’t necessarily she said.
Unlike chains such as , whose brandef ice cream is madeby , and , whose microwaves flatbreads are produced by , Donatoss prepares its foods rather than outsourcing the work to a Its business expansion is linkexd to $4.5 million in research-and-development and manufacturing upgradesx the company undertook in 2006 with the help of a $2.9 milliom loan from the state. “We have the manufacturing nailede down,” Bauer said.
“We’re looking for significant growth Donatos’ Taylor Station Road complex can servicr upto 1,500 supermarkets with 13-inch take-and-bake pies, as well as 7-inchg pizzas for the company’s entertainment venue business, which includee Central Ohio’s major sports facilities, such as Nationwide Arena, and others in Ohio, Indiana and North Carolina.