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A fortune cookie describing Ho-Lee-Chow Inc. might read something like this: Confucius say, let them eat Chinese--in 30 minutes or less.
Thomas Burnham, president and founder of Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Ho-Lee-Chow, hopes the Chinese delivery and take-out chain will do for Oriental cuisine what Domino's did for pizza.
As a former executive vice president for Domino's Pizza International, Burnham, along with a bevy of Domino's executives he took with him to start the chain, is borrowing some of Domino's tricks to turn Ho-Lee-Chow into a lean, mean, delivery machine.
"We're the delivery experts," Burnham said. "The food just happens to be Chinese."
Operating under the premise that Americans want more food delivered and are weary of pizza, Burnham said Chinese food was the most obvious alternative. "When people were asked what they want delivered, the thing that came up most behind pizza was Chinese," he said.
The chain also...