Marvellous Meals

David and Carol Williams first met when they were both college students studying
elementary education. They found that they shared many interests. Upon graduation,
they both became nursery school teachers.

One of their shared interests was cooking and eating only naturally grown organic
foods. They created several original recipes, which they served at their wedding.

The wedding menu was so popular with their guests that they soon opened a small
restaurant – Marvellous Meals – near the campus of Whitehall Community College. It
offered mostly take-out food and had seating for only sixteen persons. With both
Williams teaching, the restaurant was open only for dinner. Starting with just $3,500,
they were only able to afford second-hand equipment and occasional part-time help.

Within the first six months of operation, however, sales revenues more than doubled.
Mr. Williams left his teaching position to work full time at the restaurant. They now
were open for both lunch and dinner, and they expanded their take-out service. Ms.
Williams kept her teaching position as insurance in case the new business failed.

The restaurant soon became one of the most popular near campus, capitalizing on the
trend toward healthy dieting and non-chemically treated foods.

Repositioning of the Business

Their cousin, a business professor at a large community college, later visited them and
became impressed with the success of their operations. He spent two months with the
Williams. Together, they prepared a business plan to reposition Marvellous Meals
from a restaurant to a manufacturer of organic foods.

The restaurant was sold, and the proceeds used to purchase processing and packaging
equipment and to rent manufacturing space.

The business plan included extensive marketing research, financial projections, and
marketing strategy. It was decided to sell the line of food products to distributors only,
as the company could only afford a one-person sales force – Mr. Williams. They were
able to hire and train several of their restaurant employees to assume product
positions, as Mrs. Williams managed the manufacturing process and Mr. Williams
called on natural food distributors across the country.

In its first years, the company had only three natural, organically grown food products,
which were sold to national distributors. Marvellous Meals entered one of these
products – a soyburger mix – in a natural food competition sponsored by Good
Housekeeping magazine. It won first place and brought recognition to Marvellous
Meals.

Since those early years, the company has added eight more organically grown, natural
food products, which are widely distributed in the United States, Canada, and several
other countries in Europe and South America. The Williams still run the organization,

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along with the help from two of their original employees, who have been promoted to
managerial positions.

For 1995, the company posted sales revenues of $1.6 million and earned before-tax
profits of 17 percent on sales.

1. Identify the key factors that made Marvellous Meals a successful venture.
2. What personal factors made David and Carol Williams a successful
entrepreneurial team?
3. Identify some possible areas for future expansion and diversification.