Pair’s meal-kit delivery service puts focus on local

Fuud Canada braves Dragons’ Den and now has eyes on national market

A Vancouver-based meal-kit delivery service is expanding its delivery area — right into the Dragons’ Den.

Fuud Canada will appear on the CBC’s televised business-pitch gauntlet this Thursday at 8 p.m. seeking a $90,000 investment for 10 per cent of the company.

“The thing about Dragons’ Den is that it’s kind of like a boxing match with eight people in the ring,” said Fuud co-founder Thomas Buchan of their episode, which was filmed last April. “The dragons are breathing fire not only on us, but on each other and it’s quite a spectacle.

“We definitely had a couple strips torn off of us, but we think we survived the battle and we’re pretty proud of the outcome.”

The service was founded last year by Buchan and his business partner, Riti Chrea. The pair has since developed more than 300 recipes and their service has delivered more than 20,000 meals to British Columbians.

While many meal-kit delivery services peddle convenience, Buchan notes that Fuud places a large focus on local ingredients, local producers and local delivery — something he believes will stand out in the “land grab” for “quick and convenient” meal kits.

“We are pretty local, so we work very hard to showcase local chefs and local farmers and that’s kind of the reason we put two U’s in Fuud — there’s always two of you at the dinner table: you and a farmer,” said Buchan.

“We use a local pasta-maker for 90 per cent of our pastas, we use local handmade sausages. All the

We definitely had a couple strips torn off of us, but we think we survived the battle and we’re pretty proud of the outcome.

chicken is SPCA-certified, organically fed grains from Abbotsford, so we try to be as transparent as possible with our food sourcing.”

He also notes that keeping food sources local means lower delivery charges and less packaging, something he believes is “killing the competition.”

“The delivery charges and the packaging are very, very hard to swallow and that’s why none of these competitors are turning a profit yet,” he said, noting Fuud reuses ice packs, recycles packing materials and uses containers made from 100 per cent compostable material — produced by a local company, of course.

So how does the local model work when you’re put in a national spotlight such as on Dragons’ Den?

“We think that the local model has to be replicated nationally,” said Buchan.

He reveals the company is currently in talks with a national grocery chain that supplies locally and that if the deal works out, Fuud will be able to “focus on telling a great story about doing great dinners.”