LOBLAW, SWISS RESTAURANT TEST IN-STORE RECIPE

DAVID GRAHAM

TORONTO (FNS) -- Loblaw Cos. is jointly exploring in-store food service with Swiss restaurant operator Movenpick in three Loblaw stores here.

The food-service concept, called Movenpick Marchelino, is installed currently in three supermarkets operated by Loblaw, including its newest 54,000-square-foot store in the center of the city's richest neighborhood.

Loblaw is Canada's largest retail and wholesale food distributor with operations across the country.

The Movenpick Marchelino concept has a menu that includes seafood, soups, sandwiches, rotisserie chicken, meats, pasta, Rosti, salads, breads, pastries, truffles and coffee, served hot to be consumed on premises or prepared to order for takeout.

The success of the Movenpick centers situated in the three Loblaw stores will determine whether the relationship is feasible. Still, sources at the parties involved promise "many more locations to follow."

Promotion materials for Movenpick Marchelino call the products "the gourmet's fast food."

For Loblaws executives, the partnership is apparently the extension of its effort to meet the consumer's demand for convenience, quality and variety.

"Why settle for hamburgers and pizza when it is just as easy to take home ready-to-serve dishes like Rosti potato with sour cream and chives, or range-fed rotisserie chicken rubbed with fresh herbs," the materials said. "All in all, it's the most fun eating, shopping and not cooking have ever been!"

Loblaw executives were not available to comment specifically on the project with Movenpick. At the chain's last shareholders meeting, Chairman Galen Weston said the newest store "will revolutionize the old-fashioned, hard-edge, unfriendly supermarket stereotype."

The store, which was constructed on the site of the old Weston Bakery, has the Movenpick operations as well as a post office, travel agency, photo lab, florist, dry cleaner, computer center and wine store.

"For a number of locations across Canada, this more multinational country market approach to food retailing will be fresh and new. It will enable us to excite and delight a much broader mix of Canadians and to better provide for more of their needs," Weston said at the meeting.

There are nine Movenpick locations in the Toronto area, independent of the Loblaw partnership.