A couple of years ago, meal-preparation businesses were sprouting across the country. Trend spotters were commenting on the growth, and franchisers were talking big.
But what seemed like promising prospects turn out to have been not so robust, and the once-surging sector now is shrinking.
The widely embraced idea was that time-strapped folks would flock to commercial kitchens where they could buy ingredients, follow recipes and in a couple of hours “assemble” several nutritious meals to place on the family table.
Not exactly.
“We found that if customers didn’t have enough time to be in their own kitchens they probably didn’t have enough to be in ours either,” Barb Groth said.
Groth is one of the survivors. Where more than 15 meal-prep shops popped up in greater Milwaukee over the last few years, it appears just six are left. Groth and her daughter own three of them.
“On paper, it was a great idea,” said Carri Albrecht, owner of Thyme Savvy, which operated for two years in Menomonee Falls and three in Brookfield before closing last summer.
In 2006, prompted by the growth of her business to that point and by inquiries from customers about opening similar shops, Albrecht registered to market Thyme Savvy franchises. She didn’t sell any.
