M&M Meat Shops of Kitchener has been sold to Searchlight
Capital Partners LP of Toronto.
Searchlight intends to “stabilize” the business, then resume
expansion of the business which has more than 450 franchised outlets, according
to Searchlight’s chief executive officer, Andy O”Brien.
M&M was founded in 1980 by brothers-in-law Mac Voisin
and Mark Nowak and their wives. They started with 62 frozen-food items
featuring restaurant-quality meat.
It expanded to annual sales of about $475 million, launched
a failed expansion into the United States as MyMenu, and now has annual sales
of about $400 million.
O’Brien said he plans to cash in on the loyalty of the chain’s
3.5 million customers via personalized e-mails backed with more advertising in
print, broadcast and digital formats.
