Chef Nadia Lim has become the face of My Food Bag.
Chef Nadia Lim has become the face of My Food Bag.
My Food Bag is about to hit the $100m annual revenue mark, less than three years after it began.
With almost 30,000 customers across 14 cities in New Zealand and Australia, and having delivered over nine million meals, My Food Bag is now one of New Zealand's fastest growing companies.
Chief executive and co-founder Cecilia Robinson said although she had big plans for the company, she never expected to reach them so quickly.
My Food Bag is the brainchild Cecilia Robinson, Theresa Gattung and Lim.
"Growth has been massive, we never dreamed this," Robinson said.
"We dreamed big and I always said we'd reach $100 million but I thought it would take maybe five years, not $80 million in two and a half - that's faster than Xero, faster than TradeMe and faster than most of the big businesses that we've seen in this country so it's amazing," she said. "In New Zealand we're the third largest food retailer behind Foodstuffs and Progressive, bigger even than Veritas Group."
Robinson founded My Food Bag in March 2013 with her husband James, Masterchef winner and dietician Nadia Lim and her husband Carlos Bagrie and former Telecom chief executive Theresa Gattung.
The concept is based on delivering a week's worth of healthy and easy to make recipes as well as the ingredients needed to make them.
There are currently six 'food bags' ranging from feeding a family of four or five through to just one or two people for the week. The company also has a vegetarian bag and is working on a gluten-free bag which is set to be released as early as February next year.
In the light and bright office in Parnell, huge kitchen on one side, are around thirty of the company's sixty staff. The business is expanding into the area downstairs having already outgrown the office space they currently occupy.
There are other small businesses in this space but we really see the supermarkets as being the main player that we compete with because that's the big industry in New Zealand and we're trying to shake that up.
The home delivery food space has grown rapidly in the last decade or so around the world, but Robinson said the New Zealand market had been slow to follow this trend prior to My Food Bag.
Chief executive and founder, Cecilia Robinson.
There are other companies moving into this space now but My Food Bag is focusing on the bigger players.
"There are other small businesses in this space but we really see the supermarkets as being the main player that we compete with because that's the big industry in New Zealand and we're trying to shake that up," Robinson said.
"The team is really the secret to success though, my husband who is amazing, Theresa, Nadia and the wider leadership team - every day they challenge us and work to make a better experience for our customer and that's what we're all about."
Another factor in the company's growth has been its use of free-range pork and eggs and locally sourced ingredients, something Robinson said resonated with its customers.
Food for thought • My Food Bag is currently turning over $80 million • Set to reach annual revenue of $100m in the next few months • Has almost 30,000 customers • Available in 14 cities across Australasia • Delivered more than 9 million meals
