Hot Cities

After working as a senior executive for Campbell's Soup and Mars Inc., Al Poe knew the value of having a strong team behind him. So when he moved MenuDirect Corp. from Windsor, Connecticut, to Piscataway, New Jersey, he was looking above all for a good supply of the right kind of people.

MenuDirect, a supplier of meals for diabetics and others on special diets, required access to both blue-collar and white-collar workers, which make up Poe's 60-person work force. "We're hiring warehouse workers, telemarketers, dieticians, nurses and administrators," says Poe, 50. "And all those [types of people] are plentiful here."

Because its meals, consisting of both frozen and shelf-stable menu items, are shipped directly to its customers, MenuDirect needed easy access to transportation facilities as well. "We're right off the parkway," says Poe. "We've had no trouble with people finding us."

Another factor is the scientific and medical resources offered by the nearby Rutgers and Princeton universities, and the many pharmaceutical firms that dot central New Jersey. Says Poe, "To find all this in a mixed-use facility under one roof was the most exciting thing."

This article was originally published in the October 1999 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: Hot Cities.