Who: The founders are Stephanie Allen and Tina Kuna of Snohomish.
What: A national leader in the meal-replacement industry, Dream Dinners is a string of franchises where customers go to assemble meals that they then freeze until ready to put together and serve. It’s an outgrowth of girls nights that Allen, a caterer, would host for her friends, where they’d prepare in advance a month’s worth of meals for their families.
This month’s menu included Southwest steaks (rubbed with cumin, chili powder, garlic, brown sugar and fresh cilantro); beef or chicken calzones; pork roast glazed with cola, ginger and lime; and meatball hoagies.
Herald file photo
Dream Dinners is experiencing explosive growth, jumping from 60 franchises to 160 in 2005. As of April, there were 175 franchises in 31 states.
“The concept remains the same,” Kuna said. “Maybe we’ve enhanced the ambience of the stores.”
Where: The company has outgrown its previous office in a Snohomish farmhouse. In February, Dream Dinners moved to 1118 First St. in Snohomish.
When founded: 2002 in an Everett commercial kitchen.
Employees: 50
Revenues: $4.4 million in 2005; the company has doubled its revenues each year, Kuna said.
Biggest challenge in last 12 months: “It’s been a learning curve and a challenge just keeping up with the growth,” Kuna said. Along with adding staff (including a store development team and recipe testers), Dream Dinners has launched a new Web site to help franchise owners manage their stores and has built up a network of regional coaches to provide them with “really good one-on-one time and support,” she said.
Biggest challenge in next 12 months: Goals for this year include opening 10 stores and training 10 franchise owners each month. The company will have its first convention for franchise owners in May in Corpus Christi, Texas. Allen and Kuna are working on a Dream Dinners cookbook with 100 of their top recipes. The book is due out in September and will be launched in conjunction with some store grand openings.
Notable: Dream Dinners continues to attract significant media attention. Earlier this year, the company was the focus of a half-hour episode of “Recipe for Success,” a Food Network show that profiles entrepreneurs who launch food-related businesses. In March, the company was featured in a story in The New York Times.
Quotable: “Our goal really is to feed a nation,” Kuna said. “We want every family across the nation to sit down to dinner three times a week. We have a lot of work to do.”
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