Claremont, NC - North Carolina-based WSMP Inc. has joined forces with two national restaurant companies to introduce new lines of sandwiches to be sold in supermarkets and other retail outlets.
It was announced that both Checkers Drive-In Restaurants, Inc., and Rally's Hamburgers, Inc., have reached agreements with WSMP for the retail food programs. They cover a complete line of lunch and dinner sandwiches, which will be produced and distributed nationally by WSMP's prepared foods division in Claremont, NC. Checkers and Rally's will maintain product approval on the branded products produced by WSMP.
"We believe this is a great opportunity to continue building on the brand equity of both of these national restaurant chains," said Jay Gillespie, who is chief executive officer of both Checkers and Rally's. "Further, it should help us expand into new markets and expose our brands to additional groups of consumers who we have not traditionally reached."
David R. Clark, WSMP president and chief operating officer, said the agreements "represent a new opportunity to utilize WSMP's existing expertise in producing high quality sandwiches. We feel this provides significant potential growth opportunities for all the parties involved. It also is important to note that one of the highest selling categories in the home meal replacement field is sandwiches," Clark continued. "So, this new sandwich program should give additional strength to our home meal replacement activities."
These agreements are in addition to one announced in September 1997 by CKE Restaurants Inc., parent of Hardee's Food Systems Inc., and WSMP to introduce a new line of Hardee's biscuits in selected retail test markets. Checkers Drive-In Restaurants, through its subsidiaries and its franchisees and licensees, operates 480 quick service restaurants in 20 states, primarily in the Southeast and Midwest. Rally's operates 468 quickservice hamburger restaurants, located primarily in the Midwest.
In its prepared foods operations, WSMP has the capacity to produce more than four million microwaveable sandwiches per week and already is producing and packaging sandwiches under numerous nationally recognized labels. It also produces packaged, refrigerated meats, vegetables and other items targeted for the Home Meal Replacement market and is one of the nation's largest country ham producers.
In addition to its prepared food operations, WSMP just finalized a merger with Sagebrush Inc. under which WSMP acquired all of the outstanding common stock of Sagebrush in exchange for newly issued WSMP common stock. This brought 35 Texas-style Sagebrush(R) steakhouse restaurants in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee into WSMP's restaurant operations. The company's other restaurant operations include 25 company-owned and 46 franchised restaurants, with a majority of these being Western Steer(R) Steaks, Buffet and Bakery restaurants, Prime Sirloin(R) Buffet, Bakery and Steaks restaurants, and Bennett's(TM) Smokehouse and Saloon restaurants.
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