The newly forged link between Harry's Farmers Market and Boston Market may prove to be one of the most potent partnerships imaginable.
Consider the players: Harry's runs fun-to-shop perishables megamarkets, plus the highly regarded Harry's in a Hurry home-meal replacement stations, both in the Atlanta region; Boston Market is the ubiquitous quick-meal restaurant that virtually defines HMR. Both have long been held up by industry observers as exemplars, even though Harry's hasn't been consistently profitable.
As you'll see by reading the front-page news article written by Fresh Meals Associate Editor Jack Robertiello, an affiliate of the company that operates and franchises Boston Market is pumping millions of dollars into Harry's in a bid to see what the two HMR providers can develop.
And they may be able to develop quite a bit, such as co-branding strategies and the combined offer of hot-prepared entrees with Harry's extensive fresh-food takeout offerings. They could consider putting the resulting product selection in prepared-only stores, inside Harry's Farmers Market units or on the premises of third-party retailers.
The last possibility transpires because the joint-venture partners have plans to tinker with branded HMR products that they may make available to supermarkets and other retailing forms. A number of supermarket operators have already expressed interest in the obvious idea of offering the Boston Market HMR solution.
This deal, then, may be the opening gambit in a game that will eventually spread branded HMR concepts much further and faster than would have seemed possible prior to the transaction.
As for Harry's itself, that operator should finally possess the financial wherewithal to support expansion. And it will have access to the powerhouse Boston Market brand to help fuel the engines of rollout. The deal may also provide the means Harry's needs to better use its prepared-food manufacturing and baking facilities.
The Boston-Harry's liaison appears to represent the culmination of a long-running quest on Harry's part to discover new and additional ways to get its products to market, and to expand its market.
Earlier, that quest produced a short-lived partnership with Wal-Mart Stores. That situation unfolded late in 1994 when Wal-Mart said it would install Harry's in a Hurry departments in a few of its discount outlets.
Hopes ran high that the association would result in the swift propagation of the Harry's concept into a multistate region, but the fledgling partnership was dissolved just a few months after it was formed. Reasons aren't entirely clear. Perhaps a remnant of that agreement remains, though, since there are Harry's outlets in a couple of Sam's Club locations. Sam's is owned by Wal-Mart.
On another front, Harry's is in a new market test with RaceTrac convenience stores in the Atlanta area, through which it's offering prepared products. So it looks like there will be a bunch of chicken on quick-time march now.
