(FranchisePick.com Franchise Blog) Related stories: Make & Take Gourmet: Meal Prep Franchisor Takes Failures in Stride, Patrons of Failed Franchise Blast Make and Take Gourmet Franchisor Bellso, Meal Prep Franchisor Blames Franchisees…

What a difference two months makes!

Back in June, Make & Take Gourmet franchise founder Michele Bellso was claiming that the tiny NY meal assembly franchise company was thriving. An Unhappy Franchisee post on Make & Take Gourmet quoted Bellso’s aggressive growth plans:

Michele Bellso, founder and president of Make & Take Gourmet, says the company isn’t even close to reaching its full potential. Since May 2006, the company has grown to include 15 stores in five Northeast states, including two in Onondaga County, six in Rochester and one in Auburn, Watertown, and New Hartford.

“…We are on track to have 100 stores in three years,” Bellso says…”

Bellso implied that the recent failures of several franchise stores were due to those who “think they’ll make a million in the first year…”

In fact, said Bellso: “The only thing that may have changed for us is to make a better selection of our owners.”

Two months later, Syracuse.com reports that Michele & Dave Bellso are closing one of their two corporate stores, the Make & Take Gourmet in Fayetteville, NY. According to the story:

The 2-year-old Make & Take Gourmet storefront kitchen in Towne Center at Fayetteville will shut down, leaving the founding store in Cicero and a handful of franchises still operating.

In an e-mail blast to customers this afternoon, Make & Take Gourmet founder Michele Bellso wrote, “With rising fuel and food costs coupled with a sluggish economy, Make & Take Gourmet Fayetteville cannot stay open and continue delivering the level of quality you’ve come to expect.”

Dave Bellso blames the closure on a “troubling convergence of circumstances” that include, in his words:

• “We had good customers out there, just not enough of them.”
• “We just don’t have the business out there,”
• “consumers habits have changed so much in the past three or four months.”
• “Summer months… are typically slow in this business.”
• “…Expenses were way too high out there.”
• “…we had that lease, they wouldn’t change…”

According to the Make & Take Web site, there are now 12 stores. Two Onondaga County franchise locations closed within weeks of each other this past spring.

Despite the shrinking number of stores, rumors of buy-back offers extended to franchisees and pending lawsuits from failed franchise owners, the Make & Take Gourmet website continues to promote its franchise opportunity:

Thank you for your interest in a Make and Take Gourmet franchise. Meal assembly kitchens are one of the hottest trends in the food industry…

We are excited to share this exciting, proven concept with you as Make and Take Gourmet grows. Become a franchisee and discover a fabulous opportunity to be involved with a company that is focused on being the innovator and leader of the meal assembly market.

ARE YOU FAMILIAR WITH THE BELLSOS & THE MAKE & TAKE GOURMET FRANCHISE? WHAT DO YOU THINK OF MEAL PREP KITCHEN FRANCHISES? SHARE A COMMENT BELOW.

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Unhappy Franchisee: Franchising rumors, rants, controversies, issues, complaints & insider information you’re not supposed to know.

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Visit FRANBEST’s: Unbiased franchise information, franchise interviews and detailed, searchable information on 400 franchise and business opportunities.

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Franchisees, customers & experts vote for their favorite new franchises at Top New Franchise: Who’s hot. Who’s not.

Required reading:
Can Botox Parties Save the Meal Prep Franchises? (Part 1)
Can Botox Parties Save the Meal Prep Franchises? (Part 3) (FranchisePick.Com) Related posts: Can Botox Parties Save the Meal Prep Franchises? (Part 1), First Meal Assembly & Cosmetic Surgery Kitchen Franchise Debuts (FranWorst.com)

Attention ladies: You CAN have it all! That’s right: Now you have time to look your best AND to cook your best… thanks to the new Meal Preparation and Botox Injection parties being kicked off by our new favorite surrealist franchise company, Make & Take Gourmet.

Auburnpub.com announced one such culinary and cosmetic gala held this week at the M&TG franchise in Auburn, NY:

Plastic surgeon Dr. Douglas Halliday will perform botox injections at a party Tuesday hosted by the Make & Take Gourmet in Auburn. Though a public botox party is unique to the area, Halliday and his staff have been performing them at salons, restaurants and private homes for about 20 years.

In case you’re out of synch with these trendy times, Meal Preparation Kitchens are businesses that offer busy soccer moms and t-ball dads a chance to pay hundreds of dollars to come in and “assemble” their own meals to freeze for later.

Botox is a protein is most commonly injected between and below the eyebrows, the forehead and the corners of the eyes with a hypodermic needle. Botox prevents the contraction of muscles in order to dull wrinkle lines and decrease the physical manifestations of aging. It wears out in 4-10 months, so increases repeat business from all who don’t want their faces to revert to a corpse-like state. According to Halliday, Botox was made for partying:

The procedure itself takes about 10 minutes and involves little pain. Halliday uses a 30-gage needle that lacks sting, and the location of most injections in low-sensitivity areas like the forehead means little discomfort. Even in a party atmosphere, all procedures are performed in a sanitary environment under entirely safe conditions - with gloves, rubbing alcohol and sterilized needles.

Each Make & Take Gourmet partier will go home with a noticiably more youthful appearance, a $100 coupon good toward future plastic surgery, and 12 gourmet entrees to freeze and serve later!

Botox parties may just be the shot in the arm (or face) the struggling meal prep segment needs!

WHAT DO YOU THINK? ARE BOTOX PARTIES THE SHOT IN THE ARM (OR FACE) THAT THE STRUGGLING MEAL PREP CONCEPT NEEDS?

Read: One franchisee’s experience with a meal prep franchise, Overview of the meal prep franchise concept, Make & Take Gourmet franchise, not to mention the formidable Meal Assembly Watch website.

Don’t Miss: Dream Dinners, SUPER SUPPERS, SUPPER THYME USA, and the entertaining MAKE & TAKE GOURMET.

Required reading:
Can Botox Parties Save the Meal Prep Franchises? (Part 2)
Can Botox Parties Save the Meal Prep Franchises? (Part 3) (FranchisePick.Com) The pioneers of the Meal Assembly Kitchen (aka MAK, aka Meal Prep Kitchen) concept were perplexed.

They’d been certain that crowds of people would jump at the chance to spend several hundred dollars to congregate with strangers and make their own food to freeze for later.

But they didn’t.

What are we missing? asked the Meal Preppies.

As Meal Prep store sales plummeted and their comrades fell around them, the Meal Assemblers assembled to figure out a marketing gimmick that would save them.

“What can we offer them…” the desperate Meal Assemblers asked “To get them excited about paying us to let them assemble their own meals?”

“I know!” came a voice from the darkness. “We could offer them a chance to assemble their own meals while we insert hypodermic needles in their faces!”

And with the same high level of marketing savvy that had led them there in the first place, the Meal Preppies shouted with glee: “We’re saved!

And that, dear children, was how the first Meal Assembly Botox Party was born.

And the rest, like the Meal Assemblers themselves, is history…

WHAT DO YOU THINK? WILL BOTOX PARTIES SUMMON THE SUCCESS FAIRY AND HER BAG OF MAGICAL SUCCESS DUST?

Read: One franchisee’s experience with a meal prep franchise, Overview of the meal prep franchise concept, Make & Take Gourmet franchise, not to mention the formidable Meal Assembly Watch website.

Don’t Miss: Dream Dinners, SUPER SUPPERS, SUPPER THYME USA, and the entertaining MAKE & TAKE GOURMET.

(FranchisePick.Com) Related stories: Make & Take Gourmet: Meal Prep Franchisor Takes Failures in Stride, Why the Meal Prep / Meal Assembly Kitchen Franchises are Failing. Part 3, Patrons of Failed Franchise Blast Make and Take Gourmet Franchisor Bellso

There are franchise opportunities that enable thousands to live the American dream of business ownership and financial independence. There are others that entrap would-be entrepreneurs into their worst nightmares, costing them their savings, homes, reputations, marriages, and more. How can you tell the difference?

Franchise Tip #1: Don’t put aside your skepticism. In fact, put it on steroids. Double or triple it. Contrary to what the franchise salesmen tells you, scrutiny does not kill the Success Fairy.

Franchise Tip #2: Assess credibility. Remember that much of your initial decision and future happiness is dependent on the honesty of the organization you join and of those who run it. In addition to analyzing the typical aspects of concept, market, cost, etc., assess the credibility of what’s stated in the franchise marketing and corporate communications.

Franchise Tip #3: Ask lots of hard questions. Take frequent steps back. Write down assertions made as fact and independently verify or disqualify them later. Read between the lines of press releases, franchise marketing materials and interviews. Inconsistencies may tell you a lot about the credibility and/or honesty of the company and those who run it.

Scrutinizing public statements: Is their story consistent?

Here’s a current example. The June/July 2008 issue of the CNY Business Exchange features an interview with Michele Bellso, founder and president of the small NY-based Make & Take Gourmet meal prep franchise:

Michele Bellso, founder and president of Make & Take Gourmet, says the company isn’t even close to reaching its full potential. Since May 2006, the company has grown to include 15 stores in five Northeast states, including two in Onondaga County, six in Rochester and one in Auburn, Watertown, and New Hartford.

…We are on track to have 100 stores in three years,” Bellso says…”

The franchisor states that they have 15 new franchise stores and will have 100 stores in three years. A review of the company website and a Google search of articles shows a wide range of inconsistencies:

March, 2007: An article on Bellso stated “between 60 and 70 Make and Take franchise-owned stores will open in 2007.”*

November, 2007: A company press release stated that they’ve “already opened 23 locations across the country.”**

May, 2007: An interview with Bellso stated she has “15 stores in five Northeast states”***

June, 2007: The company website lists 13 stores open with one “coming soon.”

* * * * *

Questions to ask:

What happened to the 60-70 franchises that were to open in 2007?

If 23 stores opened by Nov., 2007, why are there only 13 locations in June, 2008?

Are these inconsistencies the result of unforeseen circumstances, poor planning ability or a penchant for exaggerated claims?

Before you take out that second mortgage to buy a Make & Take Gourmet franchise, you’ll want to have good answers to these questions.

WHAT DO YOU THINK? SHARE A COMMENT BELOW.

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Unbiased franchise information, franchise interviews and detailed, searchable information on 400 franchise and business opportunities.

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Franchisees, customers & experts vote for their favorite new franchises at Top New Franchise: Who’s hot. Who’s not.

Also, check out FranBest’s Best Coffee Franchises and Best Fitness Franchises.

(FranchisePick.Com) Related Articles: Cena Meal Prep Franchise by the Numbers, Cena Meal Prep Franchise Boasts Slump-Defying Sales Model, Cena Meal Prep Franchise by the Numbers

Cena, a growing meal prep (”Meal Assembly Kitchen”) franchise opportunity was founded by foreign language teacher Tammy Badinger, who opened her first unit in 2005 and began offering franchises within less than a year. Unlike many others in the industry, Badinger is pretty proud of her numbers. We’ve extracted the Cena franchise and industry numbers from a recent article (Meal-prep chain serves up success) in the Spokane Journal, transposed them for no good reason, and display them here for your review and comments (please leave below):

2005: Year first store opened

2006: Year first franchise opened

22: Cena locations currently open

7: Cena franchises to open this month*

17: Cena franchises to open in 2008*

1,123: meal-preparation outlets in the U.S. in 2006 **

1,353: meal-preparation outlets in the U.S. in 2007**

14: entrees available at Cena stores at any given time

$260: Typical cost to assemble 12 meals that serve 2-6 people each

$4: What that comes out to per serving

$15: Typical cost of a Gourmet to Go pick up meal for 2-3 people

$5-7: What that comes out to per serving

$200K: Estimated cost to open a Cena franchise location

$170,000: The cost of inventory, equipment, and furnishings.

$30,000 The Cena franchise fee
5% Ongoing Cena royalty fee (on gross sales)
2% Ongoing Cena marketing fee (on gross sales)

10: # of years of franchise agreement

3-4: # of employees of typical Cena meal prep franchise outlet

1200 - 1800: square footage of average Cena franchise location.

100: # of regular customers spending $150 a month needed for a franchise to be profitable [Badinger]

9: # of months it “generally takes” for franchisees to reach profitability [Badinger]

25- 65 Age range of typical customer, predominantly women with families. [Badinger]

6: # of Cena Franchising corporate employees.

+20%: Cena Franchising corporate revenue goal for 2008.

0-1: Number of years operating history prior to franchising
* Projected **Easy Meal Prep Association

Are you familiar with the Cena or the Cena franchise? Is Cena succeeding where other meal prep franchises are struggling? Leave a comment; share your thoughts.

(FranchisePick.Com) Related Articles: Cena Meal Prep Franchise by the Numbers, Cena Meal Prep Franchise Boasts Slump-Defying Sales Model, Cena Meal Prep Franchise by the Numbers

When other “meal prep” or “meal assembly kitchen” franchises seem concerned with holding on to what they’ve got, meal prep franchise Cena is planning to increase corporate revenue by 20% in 2008. Cena Franchising Founder Tammy Badinger plans to open 7 new franchise locations in the next month, and 17 total this year. Cena’s founder claims they know how to get customers in the door, and maximize their revenue by offering a variety of options, according to an article (Meal-prep chain serves up success) in the Spokane Journal:

Badinger says Cena should outperform the industry.
She says that Cena stores have profit centers that in some cases bring in as much revenue as the meals themselves, making the franchises unique in the industry. Those profit centers include full wine shops, bakery products, side dishes, and facility rentals.
Cena even sells its own signature coffee, an all-organic, free-trade blend roasted here by 4 Seasons Coffee Co., of Spokane. The coffee is fresh roasted to order for each Cena outlet.
Badinger says Cena prides itself on its selection of “a little better wines at very competitive prices,” and franchisees are encouraged to help customers pair wines with meals.
Cena outlets also can serve wine in the stores, so customers can sample wine as they put meals together.
Cena facilities can be rented for private parties, Badinger says. Corporations sometimes use a facility as a new twist on an office party, or as a team-building exercise.
“When you’re done, you have something to take home,” Badinger says.
She says franchisees also are encouraged to hold special events such as local wine tastings.
The events, she adds, aren’t very profitable, but introduce potential customers to the Cena concept.
“Our forte is getting people in the door,” she says. “Cena is a fun place to be. You can have a glass of wine and get some work done.”

…In addition to having customers put together meals themselves at the stores, Cena also offers a service, called Gourmet to Go, in which it prepares meals for customers to pick up, and that segment of the chain’s business is growing, Badinger says.

Read the entire article.

Are you familiar with the Cena or the Cena franchise? Can this schoolteacher - who franchised within a year of opening - succeed where others are struggling? Leave a comment; share your thoughts.

(FranchisePick.Com) Related Articles: Cena Meal Prep Franchise by the Numbers, Cena Meal Prep Franchise Boasts Slump-Defying Sales Model, Cena Meal Prep Franchise by the Numbers

Despite reports of slowing sales, franchisees in distress and the cooling of the “meal assembly kitchen” franchise before it finished preheating, the founders of meal prep franchise Cena are bullish on growth, according to this article in the Spokane Journal:

Meal-prep chain serves up success
Spokane-based Cena has sold franchise rights for 33 outlets
What began here as a single meal-preparation store on the North Side in 2004 has quietly become a fast-growing franchisor with 23 outlets in 17 U.S. states and one Canadian provinceTami Badinger, who owns the company, called Cena Franchising Inc., with her husband, Bruce, says the couple always planned to create something more than a single store.

We knew from the moment we thought of it, we wanted to franchise,” she says.

The following year, they sold their first franchise, to a couple in Elk Grove, Calif.

Now, with 22 franchise openings plus the original store under their belts, the Badingers plan to expand further, despite industry projections for slow growth in their niche. Seven Cena outlets are expected to open across the U.S. within the next month or so, and franchise rights have been sold for four other new stores, bringing the total number of franchises the company has sold to 33.

In all, Cena Franchising expects to open about 17 franchise outlets this year, Badinger says, giving it a total of 40 outlets. Read the entire article.

Are you familiar with the Cena or the Cena franchise? Can this schoolteacher - who franchised within a year of opening - succeed where others are struggling? Leave a comment; share your thoughts.

(FranchisePick.Com)  See related story:  Is Super Suppers for Stupid Suckers? And Other Meal Prep Franchise ???s

A common new business pitfall is the entrepreneurial tendency to become enamored so with a “solution” that one forgets to make sure it’s preceded by an actual need… and a need great enough to support multiple competitors who are also enamored with said solution.

Case in point:  “Meal prep” or “meal assembly” kitchen franchises.  This is where, to my hazy understanding,  ex-yuppie soccer moms with more money than time can go and slurp Merlot with other ex-yuppie soccer moms while assembling meals to bring home, freeze, and serve later to their families as if they had actually used those recipes they downloaded to their PDAs from GoodHousekeeping.com.

These recent darlings of hot franchise lists and their advertising sales reps have clever names like Super Suppers, Dream Dinners,  My Girlfriend’s Kitchen,  Pass Your Plate, Entrée Vous!, Entrees Made Easy, Mr. Food, and Supper Thyme USA.

But are women who are NOT inclined to cook really looking for a way TO cook?  It’s the same kind of question the Curves and 30 minute fitness franchise buyers wished they’d asked:  Are couch potatoes really going to stop being couch potatoes, even if it only takes 30 minutes and they don’t have to shower?

My suspicion that the meal prep franchise concept is a solution in search of a problem seems supported by the current New York Times article It’s on to Plan B as a Hot Trend Cools Off. Here are some excerpts:

The concept boomed, as the number of stores mushroomed from four in 2002 to 1,400 in 2007, almost exclusively by catering to women who wanted to provide home-cooked meals for their families, according to the Easy Meal Preparation Association.

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The loyalty of these wives and mothers landed meal assembly companies on various lists of top franchises and hot new businesses throughout 2005 and 2006.

But growth in the industry has slowed sharply, long before reaching expectations. Industry revenue, which two years ago was forecast to reach $1 billion annually by 2010, is now projected around $650 million by then, said Bert Vermeulen, an industry consultant and founder of the easy meal association.

Some 264 meal preparation stores closed during 2007, Mr. Vermeulen said, more than three times as many as in the previous year. He forecasts fewer than 50 openings in the United States this year, compared with 562 in 2006.

It turns out that lots of people are simply not motivated to plan so many meals in advance. The desire for last-minute convenience remains powerful in America, often trumping the more ephemeral rewards of home cooking.

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Super Suppers, which is based in Fort Worth, once forecast it would have 600 stores by the end of 2006; it now has about 200. Dream Dinners, based in Snohomish, Wash., originated the concept. It has 236 stores, not quite meeting expectations. No single competitor of Super Suppers and Dream Dinners has more than 70 stores.

The majority of owners bring in less than $25,000 a month, or $300,000 a year, in revenue, according to Mr. Vermeulen’s data. He figures that is about $5,000 a month short of what they need to stay out of financial trouble.

Book It N Cook It, an independent store in the Tampa, Fla., suburb of Lutz, never exceeded $4,000 in monthly revenue in its eight-month life, said Terry Warner, its former owner. Monthly expenses averaged about $7,500. Mrs. Warner and her husband closed the store in November after losing about $250,000.

The Warners, retired insurance adjusters who spent two years studying the industry before jumping in, say they underestimated the public’s aversion to meal planning.

“People here have a grab-and-go mentality,” Mrs. Warner said of Florida, where free time can be spent outdoors year-round. “The last thing anyone wants to do here is plan dinner.” She said that the burger joint next door to her shop seemed to be doing great.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?  SHOULD THE WARNERS HAVE BOUGHT A BURGER FRANCHISE?  CAN THE MEAL PREP KITCHEN CONCEPT BE SAVED?   SHARE YOUR OPINION BELOW.

Visit FRANBEST: Unbiased franchise information, franchise interviews and detailed, searchable information on 400 franchise and and business opportunities.

Franchisees, customers & experts vote for their favorite new franchises at Top New Franchise: Who’s hot. Who’s not.

(FranchisePick.Com)  Read related story:  NYT on the Meal Prep Franchise: Hot Concept Gone Cold?.  Get franchise information and review franchise opportunities at FranBest.com.

Do franchisees of Super Suppers feel like Stupid Suckers?  Has Dream Dinners become the Nightmare on Elm Street?  Will My Girlfriend soon be getting back her Kitchen?  Has time run out for Supper Thyme USA?  Will Pass Your Plate soon be passing THE plate?

Can the “Meal Prep,” or “Meal Assembly Kitchen,” or “Make It & Take It” franchise concept fail before we’ve decided what to call it?  Meal Prep franchise companies such as Entrée Vous!, Entrees Made Easy, Mr. Food, Supper Thyme USA hope not.  They’re launching creative strategies including premade food to go, health and diet meal preparation, and other ideas.

But it’s a bad sign for a food concept when even a woman named Cathy Chew, the Supper Thyme USA franchisee trying to sell her Council Bluffs, IA  location, can’t make it work.  Another bad sign is that, despite the myriad clever names, no seems to be able to craft a succinct explanation of what these places do. 

I hope I’m wrong, but the meal prep franchise concept always hit me as a solution in search of a problem… and my preduction is that you’re going to start seeing this supposedly “hot concept” turn colder than a Swanson’s TV dinner.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?  IS THE MEAL PREP KITCHEN CONCEPT VIABLE?  OR WILL THESE CONCEPTS BE THE NEXT MONUMENTS IN THE FRANCHISE GRAVEYARD?  SHARE A MESSAGE BELOW.