SlimFast’s chief executive, Kevin Hartnell, told me in late July 2012 that his company was ready to make its own fast-casual concept. He said it was “a big possibility” if consumers loved the taste and freshness of its traditional sandwiches. The market for skinny fast-casual was booming. But Hartnell said he was frustrated with “lack of consumer response” to his product. His first question in the company’s annual shareholder meeting was how SlimFast had been treated.

That meeting came on a cold night in November, 2011, at a conference room in the building where SlimFast still sits. A former company president, who declined to speak on the record, had just spoken to the board about SlimFast’s stock, which was up 20 percent that day. A shareholder, who also asked to remain anonymous, had described the company as a “little dung-heap of a fast-food concept,” and called the executives at other companies “big-brother-like.” One of the executives there, who has since joined SlimFast’s other parent company, a small pizza company called Subway, said he had a similar experience when working in the industry. “To this day,” he told me, “people are very protective of the concept of food.”

But Hartnell, in the meeting, said the company had received plenty of support and was ready to make the kind of investment that would prove its market viability. “The first time we did [a product demo], most of them said, ‘You guys can do it,’ ” he said. “It’s a very big concept at this point.” It might be difficult, for the time being, to sell a food-centric concept to consumers who may be more comfortable at their favorite fast-food chains, but that doesn’t mean the idea will be too hard to sell to diners in the States. But not only has the company been successful with its own brand—and with its own pizza franchise, Subway—the company had also won a string of “best burgers” awards.

“We’re at the point, with [SlimFast], that I think we’re able to say, ‘This is our idea—not the rest of the world’s idea of what’s going on.’ ”

And because that “idea” took off so quickly, the company has found itself in a position to pay big dividends on future sales. “With the current momentum that we have, we’re at the

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