• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Prepare-Your-Own Food Franchises on Menu

Posted on: Tuesday, 22 November 2005, 18:00 CST

By Debbie Blossom, Tulsa World, Okla.

Nov. 22--Two franchisees have signed on to open seven Tulsa area locations of an Edmond-based meal preparation company that began operations this year, the founder of the chain says.

Pass Your Plate franchises are planned for Owasso, Broken Arrow and Tulsa, said Jim Quillen, who started the business with his wife, Dana, after they and their three children moved back to Oklahoma.

"We were looking for something to do here," said Jim Quillen, already a franchising pro who started and still owns two Express Personnel locations in Texas and Colorado, where they previously lived.

A friend's comment about a California food prep business intrigued the Quillens, who after some industry research decided to create their own version of a concept that is gaining momentum across the country.

"Pass Your Plate is our own invention. . . . We can make it exactly how we want it," Quillen said. "It's such an interesting concept."

Their idea mirrors other businesses offering the same time-saving, meal-planning service.

Customers schedule a time to come in and prepare either six or 10 entrees offered from a new menu every month. Each dish is prepared from ingredients ready for assembly at a prep station, then sealed in labeled containers that are popped into customers' freezers at home, and later into their ovens.

The concept's big draw is its appeal to busy families trying to fit in healthy meals around work, school schedules and grocery shopping. Recipes can be tweaked to reflect a family's taste preferences, resolving the problem of youngsters with picky appetites.

"Our family was the perfect test case," Quillen said. "You get it the way you want it."

The 10-entree package -- with each entree offering four to six servings -- costs $156; a six-entree package runs $106. There are also smaller 10- and six-entree packages with fewer servings that cost less.

The Easy Meal Prep Association says its national data base has grown to 197 businesses and 490 stores. During the past two months, 19 companies and 80 stores became members, it says.

Most firms have only one location, but noted exceptions include Washington state-based Dream Dinners, with 87 stores, and Super Suppers in Fort Worth, with 78 stores. About three businesses, such as the 14-store Dinner by Design in Illinois, have between 10 and 15 locations.

Tulsa has a couple of food-prep businesses, including locally owned Dinner Market, which opened last spring in The Plaza shopping center in south Tulsa, and Super Suppers, which opened recently at 81st Street and Harvard Avenue.

The price of opening a Pass Your Plate location varies with size and real estate costs, Quillen said. He puts a franchisee's initial investment at between $95,500 and $160,700.

One franchisee, a team of two couples, are developing six Pass Your Plate locations, the first of which is scheduled to open in February or March in Highland Plaza on East 41st Street.

The team is targeting south and north Broken Arrow and the area of Riverside Drive and 101st Street, and is planning a site in a new retail center at 111th Street and Memorial Drive, said local franchisee Gina Harris.

"It's a big investment, but Jim and Dana's business plan is fantastic, and the need is there," Harris said. "We feel so confident."

Once people experience the meal-prep concept, she said, the trend will take off.

"Everyone wants to eat at home, but they just don't have the time," Harris said.

A second franchisee will open Pass Your Plate at Tyann Plaza in Owasso early next year, Quillen said.

Pass Your Plate's flagship Edmond store opened in July, and a north Oklahoma City store opened this month. Plans call for other Oklahoma City stores as well as Norman.

The Edmond store "has been well received," Quillen said, and customers have warmed to the changing menus and preparing meals in a social setting.

"You put it together," he said, "so you can actually say you made dinner."

-----

To see more of the Tulsa World, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.tulsaworld.com.

Copyright (c) 2005, Tulsa World, Okla.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

Source: Tulsa World

More News in this Category