My Food Bag goes down-range to lure flatties
Meal-delivery company My Food Bag is shifting its focus from organic ingredients towards cheaper prices for its latest meal range aimed at millennials.
Kiwi Fresh, which launched on Wednesday, is geared toward young couples and flatmates, as an alternative to takeaways.
My Food Bag chief executive Kevin Bowler said that unlike My Food Bag and Bargain Box, which used only free-range meat and organic produce, Kiwi Fresh would focus on ‘‘affordability’’.
‘‘To get down to producing three meals under $60 you have to compromise a little bit on those ingredient costs,’’ he said. There is also a $10 delivery fee. My Food Bag costs $130 a week for two people and four meals.
In 2017, millennials spent more on takeaways than they did at clothing, footwear, health, beauty, pharmacy and cosmetic stores combined.
Kiwi Fresh will initially be rolled out across Auckland and then other regions.
Each meal will have five ingredients at most and will include packaged foods such as canned beans, noodles, pasta and sauces.
Unlike the original, customers will have to go online for recipes.
Bowler said Kiwi Fresh only offered three meals per week because its research found millennials did not eat at home more than that.
‘‘They want to eat out. They have activities on in the evening so three nights a week is the most they want to eat [at home].’’
The shift away from organic and free range means Nadia Lim won’t be the face of this service.
Last year My Food Bag was criticised for using too much plastic and replaced its ‘‘chilltainers’’ with ice packs and plasticwrapped ‘‘cool wool’’.
Some customers were concerned to discover the chilltainers, which were collected by couriers at the following delivery, were not reused.
The chilltainers were 95 per cent to 97 per cent recyclable in kerbside recycling and were made from 97 per cent sustainable paper.
Bowler said some parts of the country did not have recycling facilities, but could not specify where. ‘‘My experience is that we do collect them but there are limited places that we can recycle them. We would love to move to a point where we’re using recyclable material.’’