FLEMING IS DEVELOPING HOME MEAL REPLACEMENT CONCEPTS

DON YAEGER

OKLAHOMA CITY (FNS) -- Fleming Cos. here has been developing new fresh foods concepts to aid retailers in the home-meal replacement market, William J. Dowd, president, said at the wholesaler's annual meeting.

Under the Chef's Cupboard trademark, the first concept, Baker's Boulevard, is a limited-assortment bakery designed to meet the smaller retailer's fresh bakery needs without having a full on-premises bakery, Dowd said.

Two retail units, focusing on the 20 top-selling bakery items, have been tested in Phoenix, and sales met a goal of 2% to 3% of store sales, Dowd noted. Twenty additional units are being installed now, with a goal of 100 installations by the end of the year.

"Over the next five years we hope to sell 1,000 units," he said.

Other departmental concepts to be tested at an Oklahoma City store this month include Italian Specialties, with fresh pizza, calzone, stromboli and Italian salads; The Chicken Store, with fresh rotisserie chicken, oven-baked chicken and side dishes, and the Souper Salad Sandwich Shop, with fresh soups and salads plus made-to-order sub sandwiches.

The Fleming Category Marketing group also is developing kiosks to promote more than 100 prepared produce items, ranging from packed salads to peeled carrots, sliced pineapple and diced cantaloupe.

Fleming licenses the Chef's Cupboard concepts and helps install the units and teach retailers how to run them, Dowd noted.