Wonky Box founders Angus Simms and Katie Jackson have launched the latest expansion to the business, adding meats, cheeses and refillables. Photo / Supplied
Online grocer and retailer Wonky Box is expanding again, adding meats, cheeses and refillable grains to its online offering.
But as more Kiwis turn to the business and away from the grocery duopoly, its co-founder is remaining focused on curating its range rather than becoming a supermarket challenger.
Good Groceries by Wonky plans to deliver quality goods sourced from local growers, farmers and producers, allowing Kiwis to enjoy ethically farmed and traceable groceries.
Included in the expansion is Wonky Box’s first ever chilled range, featuring butcher-quality meat bundles, cheeses and deli staples, as well as a refillable range of grains, pulses and dry goods in compostable packaging.
The Fridge Fillers bundle is priced at $59 for a 2kg box (four varieties) and $99 for a 3.8kg box (five varieties), while the refillables range starts from $4.
Wonky Box co-founder Angus Simms said that the business is continuing to keep up momentum as it grows its customer base.
“I think we’re fortunate in a certain way that we’ve got a proposition in the market that we haven’t really seen come back on us, considering obviously the current economic pressures that a lot of businesses are facing here,” Simms said.
“We’ve got a fairly low-cost offering to consumers in the market, whereas meal kits tend to be perceived as being slightly more of a premium.”
Simms said Wonky Box had positioned itself as a supply-driven business rather than a choice-providing business.
He said suppliers were excited to sign on board, including Barrys Bay Cheese owner Daniel Shields, and L’Authentique owner Philippe Arregui.
“Everything that we’re doing here at Wonky Box, all the do good that we’re doing, the food waste reduction, the being fairer to our suppliers, we need to put them almost at the forefront just as much as our customers.
“The pitch to suppliers is often quite as simple as, you guys are telling us the challenges, how much supply you’ve got, how much you don’t have, and we’re crafting our box range and our offering around that.”
He said in designing the Wonky Box offering, the service accommodates for changes in stock or availability. For example, if they are expecting a shortage of pork from a supplier, they can switch the offering to other meats while ensuring the customer still gets value for money.
The business invested ahead of time at both its North and South Island depots in refrigerator units to accommodate the additional chilled goods.
Co-founder Katie Jackson said shoppers deserved to know where their food comes from.
“In supermarkets, apples are proudly labelled ‘Grown in the Hawke’s Bay’ or oranges ‘from Gisborne’. It’s right there on the shelf – the region, sometimes even a photo of the grower. It helps you feel connected to what you’re buying,” Jackson said.
“However, when it comes to meat, that clarity often disappears. Many packs don’t name the farm, or even the region. You might not know which cut you’re buying.”
She said that some sausages are labelled “beef” but are really pork with beef flavouring, while others come from overseas and are processed and packaged to look local, but have no transparency about their origins.
The expansion is the latest for the business after adding Wonky Flowers in June, which saves fresh flowers deemed not suitable for the wider market, as well as Wonky Pantry, which saves surplus goods, short-dated goods and items with minor packaging flaws.
As the business adds more to its range, Simms cautioned against labelling the business as an online supermarket.
“I’m quite passionate about having a really particular offering to our customers. Because we’re in the e-commerce space, I think there’s a real challenge for online brands that have too much to offer.
“When you think about a consumer, they get a certain thrill about going shopping at a shopping centre or even a supermarket, and it’s a different type of experience to shopping online. When consumers shop online, they tend to know what they want and they go online and they purchase it.”
He referenced American author Alvin Toffler, who coined the term “choice overload” in the 1970s, which describes how customers get overwhelmed when presented with too many options.
Simms said he believes too many online businesses have fallen into that trap.
“Where we’re at with Wonky Box is we have our produce boxes, we have our very basic flower boxes, and now we’re moving into this meat bundle space where we’re crafting together what we like to think is a curated offering in both the meat and chilled department. It’s still extremely simple.
“I think that having another choice in the market would be beneficial for all of us consumers here in New Zealand. Whether or not the online space is the answer there, I’m still unsure because of that very reason, the choice overload.”
Good Groceries by Wonky launches nationwide from today.
Tom Raynel is a multimedia business journalist for the Herald, covering small business, retail and tourism.