Fresh Food Franchise Picks

This article was written by Sara Wilson of Entrepreneur.com

Americans adore all things fresh: fresh beginnings, fresh outlooks and now, more than ever, fresh foods. According to a survey conducted by Datamonitor, the natural food and drinks market is expected to surpass $27.5 billion by 2007, and the number of natural-food consumers in the U.S. is expected to grow from 216 million in 2002 to 266 million in 2007.

The bottom line is that Americans are no longer willing to eat whatever is easiest or cheapest. Better-educated consumers are searching for fresh, unprocessed, healthy foods -- and this dietary change is fueling what we predict will be the next big trend in franchising: fresh-food franchises.

What's driving this trend? "The major thing affecting these fresh-food concepts is the fact that there's a [tremendous] amount of media convincing us we're getting fat," says Aaron Allen, CEO of Quantified Marketing Group, an Orlando, Florida-based full-service strategic marketing and PR firm that works with 2,000 restaurants. ...