Fred's Frozen Foods and Fred's for Starters are frozen food brands that trace their origin to Fred Luker who first started manufacturing frozen meat and vegetable products in Noblesville, Indiana in 1947. As of 2002, both brands are operated by Windsor Quality Food Company, LTD, which is ultimately owned by the Hojel and Meinig families through their holding company HM International based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Fred Luker Fred W. Luker was an entrepreneur and inventor. In 1947, he established Fred's Frozen Foods to provide frozen meat patties and frozen bread vegetables to the wholesale food service industry. Fred's Frozen Foods grew as the food service customers were experience increased growth as consumers began to dine away from home. In the late 1950s, Fred Luker perfected a method of applying a coating of crumbs of breading to a slice of raw meat and subsequently compressing the slice of meat under pressure to embed the crumbs deeply and evenly into the meat. The result was the processed meat patty would be 150% larger. Fred Luker applied for a patent in January 1962. The Marten Family Purchases Fred's Frozen Foods In 1960, John S. Marten was managing the Sexton Foods Indianapolis manufacturing plan. At an Indianapolis institutional food service trade show that year, John Marten met Fred Luker. Fred Luker was a 62-year-old frozen food entrepreneur who had developed a small frozen food manufacturing company in Noblesville, Indiana with $500,000 a year in sales. While building his company, Fred developed a process of breading and freezing meat. John S. Marten realized the process could be patented. Fred Luker was looking to retire and sell his business. In early 1961, the Marten Family entered into an agreement to purchase Fred's Frozen Foods from Fred Luker with the stipulation that Fred file a patent (granted in 1965) on his breading process. In November 1961, John S. Marten and his brother Harry Marten left Sexton Foods. The Marten brothers had advocated an expansion of the Sexton Foods product line to include a frozen food line. However, other family members did not believe that the traditional Sexton customer would be interested in frozen foods since the capital required for restaurants to install freezers and refrigerators was large. In addition, Sexton Foods was reluctant to make the large investment to install freezers in the Sexton warehouses and convert the Sexton delivery fleet to freezer trucks. The value the