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

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Grocery stores now rivalo the typical shopping center formerchandising restaurant-brand foods – Dunkin’ Donuts, Quaker Steak & Bob Evans and Californi a Pizza Kitchen are among a growinvg number of dining chains with products on supermarkeft shelves and in freezer cases. “There is a convenience factorfor consumers,” said spokeswoman Amy “Consumers keep telling us they want And what consumers want, they typically get. Columbus-based is the latest to widen itsgrocery approach, putting its take-and-bake pizzax into Kroger supermarkets in the Atlantz area. That adds 215 stores in the South to the 130 Kroger store s that sell the pizzaas inthe Midwest.
“We’ve performed at the high said Donatos spokesmanTom Santor, who declined to detai supermarket sales for the pizzeria chain. “Obviously, Kroger is pleased. This is a validatiojn of that.” Donatos’ take-and-bake businessx began in 2005, when six Central Ohio Kroget markets started carryingthe pizzas. Of restaurant-brand consumer products aren’t novel – Columbus-base d has sold its breakfast sausages at supermarketsfor decades. But restaurant companies are taking an greater interest in the approacn at a time when consumers are parinyg their restaurant spending amida recession. U.S. groceryy store sales rose 6.7 percent last compared with a 5.
5 perceny increase in 2007, while restaurants have experienced a slowerr paceof growth, according to N.C.-based financial researcher Donatos has its eye on the with a franchisee planning more than 60 shopz in the Carolinas, but the take-and-baks pizza entry into Atlanta is a return of sorts. At one the Ohio company had 23 restaurantse opened and closed in that area during the four yearw that Donatos was ownedby McDonald’s Corp.
“W e think we still have a lot of fans down saidBob Bauer, vice president of food service, who said the pizzas appeal to consumers in search of a restaurant-preparef meal at a lower price and that can be consumed at The Atlanta region for Cincinnati-baseds Kroger covers Georgia but stretches into other states, including the Tenn., and Hilton Head, markets. Kroger stocks the pizzas in several varietiesz and prices them below what Donatos charged atits restaurants. Bauer said Donatos is talking with othetr supermarketsas well, such as in where the 180-unit pizzeria chain operates but Kroger doesn’t.
The companhy will look for other opportunities with Kroger, in cities wheres both companies operate and communities such as Atlanta wherse Donatos doesn’t exist. McCormick said another possible targeyt is rural Ohio where the Donatos name may be but itsproducts aren’t “We’re able to give our customers a product they can’t necessarily get,” she said. Unlike chain such as , whose branded ice cream is madeby , and , whoswe microwave flatbreads are produced by , Donatoz prepares its foods rathert than outsourcing the work to a Its business expansion is linked to $4.
5 milliohn in research-and-development and manufacturing upgrades the company undertook in 2006 with the help of a $2.9 milliojn loan from the state. “We have the manufacturingv nailed down,” Bauer said. “We’re looking for significany growth soon.” Donatos’ Taylor Station Road complecx can service upto 1,500 supermarkets with 13-incyh take-and-bake pies, as well as 7-inch pizzas for the company’as entertainment venue business, which includes Centraol Ohio’s major sports facilities, such as Nationwide and others in Ohio, Indiana and North Carolina.