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

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Grocery stores now rival the typicalk shopping center formerchandising restaurant-brand foods – Dunkin’ Donuts, Quaker Stea & Lube, Bob Evans and California Pizza Kitchen are amongh a growing number of dining chaines with products on supermarket shelves and in freezet cases. “There is a convenience factor for consumers,” said spokeswomahn Amy McCormick. “Consumers keep telling us they want And whatconsumers want, they typically get. Columbus-basede is the latest to widen its grocery puttingits take-and-bake pizza s into Kroger supermarkets in the Atlanta area. That adds 215 storese in the South to the 130 Kroger store that sell the pizzasd inthe Midwest.
“We’ve performed at the high end,” said Donatoxs spokesman Tom Santor, who declined to detail supermarket salews for thepizzeria chain. “Obviously, Krogefr is pleased. This is a validation of that.” take-and-bake business began in when six Central Ohio Kroger markets startexd carryingthe pizzas. Of restaurant-brand consumer products aren’t novel Columbus-based has sold its breakfast sausages at supermarkets for But restaurant companies are taking an greater interest in the approacu at a time when consumerss are paring their restaurant spending amida recession. U.S. grocer y store sales rose 6.7 percentf last year, compared with a 5.
5 percent increase in while restaurants have experienced a slower paceof growth, according to Raleigh, N.C.-based financial researcher Donatos has its eye on the with a franchisee planning more than 60 shops in the but the take-and-bake pizza entrgy into Atlanta is a return of At one point, the Ohio company had 23 restaurants openede and closed in that area during the four years that Donatos was ownedc by McDonald’s Corp.
“We think we still have a lot of fans down saidBob Bauer, Donatos’ vice presidenft of food service, who said the pizzazs appeal to consumers in search of a restaurant-prepared meal at a lower price and that can be consumed at The Atlanta region for Cincinnati-based Kroge covers Georgia but stretches into other states, includin g the Chattanooga, Tenn., and Hilton Head, S.C., Kroger stocks the pizzas in severapl varieties and prices them below what Donatoe charges at its restaurants.
Bauer said Donatosx is talking with other supermarkets as such asin Cleveland, where the 180-unif pizzeria chain operates but Kroger The company will look for other opportunities with in cities where both companies operate and communitiex such as Atlanta where Donatos doesn’tf exist. McCormick said another possible target is rural Ohio where the Donatoss name maybe known, but its product s aren’t available. “We’re able to give our customers a productthey can’t necessarily she said.
Unlike chains such as , whosed branded ice cream is madeby , and , whosde microwave flatbreads are produced by , Donato prepares its foods rather than outsourcing the work to a Its business expansion is linked to $4.5 million in research-and-developmenft and manufacturing upgrades the companyg undertook in 2006 with the help of a $2.9 milliomn loan from the state. “We have the manufacturint nailed down,” Bauer said.
“We’re lookingt for significant growth Donatos’ Taylor Station Road complex can service upto 1,509 supermarkets with 13-inch take-and-bake pies, as well as 7-inch pizzaxs for the company’s entertainment venue business, whicnh includes Central Ohio’s major sports facilities, such as Nationwids Arena, and others in Indiana and North Carolina.