Maid-Rite restaurants has targeted Carthage as a priority city for their 2008 Development Growth Plan.

Maid-Rite, with corporate headquarters in Des Moines, Iowa, has been around for 81 years since its founding on Nov. 19, 1926, in Muscatine, Iowa.

“In our opinion, a Maid-Rite Sandwich Shoppe restaurant in Carthage would be very successful because of the population size of the city of approximately 12,668 residents, plus the traffic off of U.S. Highway 71, along with being a local shopping hub with a

Wal-Mart Super Center and the presence of major industrial employers such as Butterball and Schreiber Foods,” said Bradley Burt, president and CEO of Maid-Rite.

“The entire community would enjoy our famous sandwiches, thick Blue Bunny malts and shakes and our homemade pies.”

In 1926, Maid-Rite founder Fred Angel combined a special cut and grind of meat with a selected set of spices and created the Maid-Rite sandwich, also known as a loose meat sandwich.

Maid-Rite, in the pricing of its menu, wants to attract the majority of the restaurant industry market to visit their franchise restaurants by having their average dollar ticket size being in the affordable $6.50 rate.
“We feel that customers want value and quality, but they also want affordability when going out to  eat, especially families in Carthage,” said Burt.

Maid-Rite is searching for a local or area person to become a franchisee and open a restaurant in Carthage this year.

Burt said the standard equipment package for a Maid-Rite Sandwich Shoppe can be as low as $95,000 to $125,000 for a 1,500 square-foot floor plan, plus with leasehold improvements, working capital and franchise fees. The total cost for a franchisee restaurant can be in the range of $175,000 to $250,000 to open and operate.

Burt has been in contact with Carthage Chamber of Commerce President John Bode to help the company find a franchisee.

“I think this is another exciting factor of growth in Carthage,” said Bode. “There are certain things that come along as we continue to grow and additional eating establishment is one of those things.”

Bode said Maid-Rite is a company that is looking to expand beyond its three-state area of Iowa, Illinois and Missouri. Other states targeted in 2008 are Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, Nebraska, Colorado, Arizona, North and South Dakota, Montana, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Florida.

“We feel very fortunate to be one of the first locations south of I-70,” said Bode. “I think that is significant.”

Bode said he would work with local banks in finding a franchisee.

“I think we have some resources that we will try to get established and we will make those available to the franchisee. We then will assist them in finding a location working with our Realtors.”

Bode said the corporation probably will want to locate in the southern part of the city.
Since maid-Rite was purchased in 2002 by the Burts and their investor group, they have completely developed all new operating systems that also include an all new attractive standard décor that reflects Maid-Rite’s history in having its unique diner-style counter stool and booth seating floor plan. The interior look is much like the diner look that was popular in Maid-Rite restaurants back in the 1920s and 1930s.

There are 82 franchise restaurants in operation in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio and Wisconsin.

Maid-Rite’s growth strategies involve opening new franchise restaurants centrically around the Midwest, where Maid-rite has good brand strength, loyalty and menu identity. That also enables Maid-Rite to logistically supply, support and train its franchisees in the states surrounding the Midwest, especially here in Iowa and in cities like Carthage.

A great deal of information about Maid-Rite came from a prepared press release and from an interview with Maid-Rite CEO Bradley Burt.