Francorp Client - M&M Meat Shops

By Eric Shackleton, The Canadian Press
TORONTO - M&M Meat Shops, Canada's largest retailer of specialty frozen foods, officially launched Wednesday its first foray into foreign markets, opening five stores in the U.S. Midwest.
"Because of proximity and (similar) demographics, we chose the Midwest" over eight other areas of the U.S. for the launch, president and CEO Gary Decatur said in an interview.
During a series of market tests in the Midwest, he said, consumers, such as busy career-oriented mothers, showed a strong interest in the company's approach to food preparation.
"A taste panel on the products that we offer in Canada ...loved" the offerings, he said.
The Kitchener, Ont.-based chain with 467 outlets across Canada already has five corporately-owned stores operating in the Madison, Wis.-area, opening one in May, two in June and another two in early July.
They are operating under a different name - MyMenu - to indicate that their products go beyond just meat, said Decatur, also president of MyMenu. However, they are similar in format to the company's Canadian outlets.
"We expect to have eight open by the end of the calendar year," all being run by a Madison-based, 30-member team under the direction of the Kitchener-based headquarters, he said.
M&M, he said, plans to franchise these outlets in the next couple of years.
The company, founded in 1980 and whose customers include many so-called "soccer moms," has annual sales of between $465 million and $467 million.
It defines soccer moms as 25-to 54-year old suburban women who juggle careers and families but who like to put healthy meals on the table.
M&M joins several Canadian retailers that have tried to enter the U.S. market but later were forced to retreat because of poor sales and little brand awareness.
These include Loblaw Cos. Ltd., Shoppers Drug Mart Corp. and Canadian Tire Corp. Ltd.
Meanwhile, nearly 300 of Canadian food icon Tim Hortons' more than 2,800 stores are based in the United States.
Decatur said M&M looked to Tim Hortons for inspiration.
As for franchising outlets, he said it "will take anywhere from six months to a year ... to work out any nuances that we may have to modify" before deciding on franchises.
However, if the MyMenu concept pans out in the Madison area, he said, M&M hopes to eventually have 300 to 400 outlets in the Midwest alone, all franchised like in Canada.
"We believe the MyMenu brand and shopping experience has incredible potential for growth internationally," he said.
Decatur said M&M's major competitors in the U.S. are the supermarkets, such as Kroger.
But while supermarkets carry lots of frozen foods, consumers increasingly indicated they like to shop at smaller, neighbourhood grocers, he said.
As in Canada, the M&M outlets in Madison are located in suburban strip malls with easy access, and are designed with orange and blue colours, in formats ranging from 1,200 to 1,400 square feet, with a single aisle and one-on-one service.
M&M, he said, believes its offerings are unique enough and separated enough from the supermarket format that "we'll be successful."
In the past 27 years, M&M has "experienced tremendous success and market penetration in Canada," he said.
"After many market research initiatives, we identified Madison as an area of communities that would benefit from our concept and residents who would find it particularly relevant to their lifestyle.
"Our new line of stores is specially designed for communities in the U.S."
Going forward, said Decatur, "we look at openings in the neighbourhood of 20 stores a year."
M&M is also looking at urban intensification projects as more people abandon suburban living for the downtown core due to high fuel and high land prices.
While most of M&M stores are located in suburban areas, "last fall we opened ... our first truly urban location in Toronto under the name M&M Meat Shops Uptown.
"We changed the decor to be more appealing to urbanites and located it in the base of a condo building."