Diet Chicken? A Grower Bets Consumers Want Thinner Birds

By Aaron Lucchetti

Staff Reporter of the Wall Street Journal

Will consumers pay more for chicken that may have less flavor?

Chris Schmitt is betting that consumers will buy his low fat chickens, even if some shoppers say they taste blander.

Mr. Schmitt, president of Frankenmuth Poultry Co., says he is raising a leaner bird on the farmyard equivalent of spa cuisine - feed with none of the growth stimulants or animal byproducts that fatten up most chickens sold in the U.S. As a result, Mr. Schmitt says, his chickens have at least 50% less fat than industry average.

But Mr. Schmitt's poultry also sells for as much as 50 cents a pound more than the leading poultry brands, mainly because his birds grow slower without the stimulants. And some consumers complain that it cooks up drier and blander than the other chickens. Mr. Schmitt says his chickens' "distinct" taste is better than that of most chickens. But that still leaves him with a problem that plagues many small producers of health foods: figuring out where consumers will draw the line on taste and price.

As a niche operation, the Frankenmuth, Mich., concern has a loyal following among health-conscious customers in Michigan and surrounding states. But now the company is trying to expand, and that's where things get tough.

 

Mr. Schmitt, who also owns a tool-and-die manufacturing company, bought the chicken operation two years ago and has invested $635,000 of his own money in it.  Last year, he says, the company was producing 6000 chickens a week and selling in 120 stores from Michigan to Florida.

 

Store owners selling the Frankenmuth product say it does well with a niche market of upscale, health-conscious consumers. "It sells quite well in my store; sales have increased since I started carrying it," says Ron Payter, owner of Andy's Farmer's Market in Southgate, Mich.

 

"If you call it low-fat, the customers will come," says Meri Grumbacher, a menu-planning consultant based in Newton, Mich.

 

The diet secret of the Frankenmuth chicken is a concoction based on corn, soybean and alfalfa that deliberately excluded growth growth stimulants, some fats and animals by-products.  The feed was developed by Les Dale, the previous owner of the company, who holds a doctorate in poultry science.

Frankenmuth Poultry, Frankenmuth, Michigan