MINNEAPOLIS -- Customers to 30 Oasis Markets in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area will find more than the usual convenience store fare within the next month as the chain brings freshly baked, hot pizza from Piccadilly Circus to its aisles.
The fit between Oasis Markets and Piccadilly couldn't be more perfect, said vice president and business development manager Lamont Glendinning. Oasis Markets wanted the opportunity to offer their customers something they couldn't get in any other convenience store, yet Oasis didn't want to make a significant investment [image-nocss] in equipment and labor. Piccadilly Circus Pizza was the perfect solution."
Glendinning was speaking of the Milford, Iowa-based pizza company's new freezer-to-oven program. We've eliminated the most complicated, expensive parts of having hot pizza in a convenience store: startup costs and dedicated labor, he said. With pizza prepared onsite, the store needs a lot of specialized equipment and labor. With the freezer-to-oven program, we prepare the pizza from fresh ingredients, flash-freeze it, and ship it to our outlets. They only have to bake it, cut it and display it.
Paul Moody, general manager of Oasis Markets, said, We see this as a perfect way to differentiate ourselves from our competition. It gives people another great reason to visit our stores, and come back again and again.
The freezer-to-oven program, which has no franchise fees, includes pretopped personal-sized pizzas in four varieties, as well as family-size pizzas. The company also produces products such as breakfast sandwiches, breadsticks and hot wings that cover all dayparts.
While the entry into Twin Cities Oasis Markets is a milestone for the company, Piccadilly Pizzawhich is owned by Land Mark Productscan already be found in more than 900 c-stores nationwide. One of our big advantages is the fact that we know and understand the convenience store environment, Glendinning said. And we know how critical followup is, so we supply every customer with a dedicated operations person, to make sure every location is maximizing its opportunities.
Oasis Markets operates 99 stores in Minnesota, South Dakota and Wisconsin under the names Oasis Markets, Food-n-Fuel, Happy Dan's and Budget Mart.
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