DES MOINES, Iowa -- Maid-Rite Corp. and grocery chain Hy-Vee Inc. are planning to open several sandwich shops at Hy-Vee convenience stores across the Midwest, said the Associated Press.Maid-Rite opened its first sandwich shop in a Hy-Vee gas station Monday in Omaha, Neb., with plans to open similar ventures in Iowa and Missouri in the next year.
The Maid-Rite Sandwich Shoppe Express, as the new shops will be called, will offer loose-meat sandwiches, tenderloins, chicken and milkshakes. The shops are the culmination of a few years of negotiating and planning [image-nocss] between the two companies, said Maid-Rite CEO Bradley Burt. "They wanted, as we did, a respected local brand that would have familiarity and identity to the customers we all serve and so Maid-Rite won out over the other quick-serve restaurant competitors to go into Hy-Vee convenience stores," he said.
The venture helps Hy-Vee by drawing customers inside the c-stores to make purchases other than gasoline, which boosts store profits and allows Maid-Rite to expand into areas with high customer traffic.
"Both businesses have a rich Iowa heritage,'' said Tom Watson, Hy-Vee's vice president of general merchandise. "We each built our brands on helpful, friendly customer service, and we're excited to work together to forward that concept in a convenience store format."
Des Moines-based Maid-Rite, which has 85 restaurants in nine Midwest states, has been expanding, adding a store every two weeks, Burt said. Its agreement with Hy-Vee calls for opening sandwich shops in Ankeny and Dubuque and two others in Gladstone, Mo., and Osage Beach, Mo., in the next year.
Maid-Rite was founded in Muscatine, Iowa, in 1926 by butcher Fred Angell, who combined selected spices with specially ground beef to make his signature loose-meat sandwich. The business was bought by Burt, a former banker, and a group of Iowa investors six years ago. He said his goal was to reinvigorate the sleepy franchise. Besides its Midwest presence, the company is now expanding into Texas, Oklahoma and Florida, he said.
Hy-Vee owns 77 c-stores across the Midwest. The West Des Moines, Iowa-based chain now has 223 retail stores in seven Midwest states and annual sales of $5.3 billion.
Between 1,500 and 2,000 customers come into one of Hy-Vee's c-stores, which offers Maid-Rite an opportunity to serve those customers, Burt said.
"Hy-Vee has a steady stream of customers coming into their convenience stores all day long," he told The Des Moines Register.
Maid-Rite will have a sign on the outside of the store. It will not have drive-thru windows, however. The Maid-Rite shops in the Hy-Vee c-stores with seating for 25 to 30 people, will all be owned by franchisees, Burt said. The initial investment will be about $150,000, compared to about $270,000 for a traditional Maid-Rite store, he said.
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