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Microcap & Penny Stocks : MDMI - Italian Bakery Extraordinaire! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Massimo's Bakery who wrote (2697)	5/18/1999 2:34:00 PM
From: Marc Stager	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 3584

Mr. Verrill, let me go through this in nice easy bite size pieces. You said: HEY STAGER: I did not realize that posts were characterized as either angry or not angry. You used that "HEY STAGER" tone before. It doesn't seem to be particularly cordial or businesslike, nor in keeping with the image of a well educated and highly respected CEO of a corporation. Then, neither does your style of writing. That's of no consequence. The important thing is that you run your company in a competent and profitable fashion. Of course, this is precisely what you're doing. It isn't necessary to write like a grammar school graduate. I was providing you with information regarding Krogers. Since you are not involved directly with any meetings, any correspondence, any calls or anything else associated with Krogers and are dealing exclusively with second-hand information. A few weeks after MDMI announced the test marketing of Roz's cookies at Kroger, ( dljdirect.com ) you said nothing more about it. Stockholders were eager to hear the results of the test. Something didn't seem right. If it had gone well you would have been crowing from the rooftops. I finally got in touch with Sharon at ANI and she told me that she had a great deal of difficulty dealing with Crawford Shaw Jr. and didn't care to do business with him. I would assume that, before any company got into a relationship with a customer, all the prices, markups, and profit margins would be clearly spelled out. Then, and only then, would the company begin to ship product, even on a preliminary/test basis. Following that procedure, this: "we have made a business decision, that it is not currently profitable to do business with them under the terms that they have requested," would not happen. Of course, things can change and I'm sure that is exactly what happened. I am interested in how you have such specific recall regarding our relationship with Krogers. Some of it is in the aforementioned press release, some of it is from conversations with you, Shaw Jr., Jim Pierson and Sharon of ANI, and John Mason at Texas Bakery. I made notes of all these conversations and what I've written here is a very small part of what I learned. Regarding the invitation to present our coffee products you can be assured we take the opportunity to present all the products we have to every customer in order to increase our probability of success. The customer than (sic) of course has to show interest in a specific product in order for us to go forward. This is politically if not grammatically correct. But how do you go about finding new customers? A few months ago I got in touch with your marketing guy, Mohamed Damrah, and gave him the name and phone number of a potential new customer. I also called that potential customer - the buyer for the Dallas Street Talk Cafes, and he was expecting Mr. Damrah to call. Two weeks later I called the buyer and it turns out that Damrah never bothered to call him. I called you, you finally met with him but he decided not to change his bread vendor. I wonder, if MDMI had called when he was expecting you to and if MDMI had made a strong, well prepared presentation, if things would have gone differently. Of course, this was just a minor glitch, and I'm sure you take every opportunity to find new customers. I think it is important for you to know that Massimo's had a relationship with Krogers prior to ANI and we have been given opportunities since ANI. ... it is not currently profitable to do business with them under the terms that they have requested, Fair enough - let's say that the ANI deal failed for that reason. All I'm saying is that you had a valuable contact to whom to pitch the coffee, not talking about Roz's cookies now - this is a new deal. It may have been possible to negotiate a deal you could both live with. "Seattle's Best" did get a deal - in a chain of 1200 stores. Damn. ...other companies may want to sell to them at a loss for other reasons but we do not. Of course they're selling at a loss. Why else would they be in business? If you have some CONSTRUCTIVE input regarding Krogers bases on first hand experience you have my number and are welcome to call. Kroger is history. Forget Kroger. Maybe we'll (yes, _WE'LL_, I have a 260,000 share stake in MDMI) do better at Albertsons. Of course we will. I have no doubts whatsoever. ____________________________________________________ Marc Stager