MURRY'S STEAKS CALLS IT QUITS IN ROANOKE

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, January 19, 1993                   TAG: 9301190127
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
MURRY'S STEAKS CALLS IT QUITS IN ROANOKE
When Murry's Steaks on Roanoke's Cove Road Northwest closed Dec. 31, it ended the Maryland company's attempt at franchising.
Allen and Rosemary Dillon, the Ferrum husband-and-wife team that operated the store, are looking for jobs, Rosemary Dillon said. The Cove Road building is for sale, said Robert Krissoff, senior vice president of Murry's in Forestville, Md.
Both parties said the closing was a business decision, although they don't necessarily agree on why the Roanoke market didn't pan out for the institutional meat supplier.
The Roanoke Murry's had been operated by the parent company for three years before the Dillons took it. Allen Dillon had been a Murry's employee for 20 years prior to taking on the Roanoke business, Rosemary Dillon said.
She said the company asked them to try running it as a prototype of a franchise operation. "We were the guinea pigs and I don't think it really worked out."
She said business dropped about 40 percent between their first full year of operation and their last. Their costs for meat had increased and so had competition from such retailers as Sam's Wholesale Club, she said.
Even though Murry's does national television advertising, Dillon said she couldn't offer the prices the company advertised because her costs as a franchiser were higher than costs for the company stores.
"If the [company's] Lynchburg store had a two-for-one offer, we couldn't meet their prices."
When the Dillons took on the business, they were selling to restaurants. Later they switched to retail sales, Krissoff said.
He said the company's decision to close in the Roanoke Valley when the Dillons quit was made partly on transportation costs to service a Roanoke-area store.
The Lynchburg store, which opened about the same time as the Roanoke one, is doing a good business, said Krissoff.
He said trucks from that store will supply Murry's restaurant customers in Roanoke.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB