The frozen food franchise wants to open 650 Midwest stores in four years.

MyMenu has skewered such enthusiastic sales from Madison-area residents for its frozen chicken kabobs, steaks and onion soup that it expects to open 650 stores in seven Midwest states over the next four years, an executive of the Canadian company said this week.

One year ago, MyMenu opened its first stores in the U.S., with five locations in the Madison area and three in Fort Wayne, Ind. Patterned after its M&M Meat Shops, a chain of about 480 stores across Canada, MyMenu offers a variety of frozen foods, from appetizers to entrees to desserts.

"The Wisconsin and Indiana markets have proven to be excellent launching pads for us. They are nice replicas of our targeted consumers," said Jennifer Dodd, MyMenu's U.S. divisional vice president, in Chicago.

The privately owned company, founded in 1980 in Kitchener, Ontario, has declined to provide any sales figures.

"Our stores in the Madison market are performing at parity or better than what we have seen in the Canadian market with similar launches," Dodd said.

She said MyMenu plans to expand to several other Wisconsin cities but would not say which ones. It is not likely the Madison area will add stores, at this point, Dodd said, and there are no plans to close any of the existing stores.

MyMenu has 33 full-time and part-time employees in the Madison area.

MyMenu is setting up a franchising system in which the company will sell territory rights to area representatives who will each run a store for at least six months, learn the brand and then sell franchises for at least 50 stores. The company will conduct demographic research and provide training and architectural drawings at first, and then will turn over those functions to the area representatives, Dodd said.

It will be up to franchise holders to find sites and build the stores, which are about 1,800 square feet. Average cost: about $250,000 to $300,000 per store.

Dodd said she's not worried the troubled economy will stymie MyMenu's growth plans. "In many ways, it's a plus for us," she said. "It's actually a very affordable startup for a franchisee in comparison to other franchise concepts."

She said My Menu "has been talking with potential candidates" for area representatives but none has signed on yet. After the Midwest stores are established, the company expects to expand to the southeastern U.S., then south-central states and then on to the West Coast.

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