Page 39 - Food & Drink Magazine July 2018

Ready meals company switches to wool
ON THE UP AND UP
Since its beginnings in the back of a restaurant in Potts Point, Sydney, My Muscle Chef has been promoted aggressively through sampling and word-of-mouth.
“The idea came to me when I was looking for a product for my personal fitness use – I was making my own food, and it was proving time-consuming,” Menon said.
“So I googled ‘muscle food delivery’, and I came up with nothing” – so he and his brother Nishant decided to do something themselves.
After successfully making its way into gyms and other franchises, the brothers in 2016 decided to invest heavily in social media marketing and radio campaigns. Since then, the ready meals business has quadrupled, with close to 100 staff and nationwide distribution.
My Muscle Chef will move into Western Australia next month, after already making big inroads into NSW, Victoria, Queensland, and South Australia.
“With confidence in Woolcool’s performance, we were able to open up new delivery windows in places we were not able to consider previously,” Menon said.
“The transition away from polystyrene to Woolcool has definitely helped us scale our business.”
The company launched into retail in April – prior to that it was online-only. A hundred
When My Muscle Chef started losing customers due to its polystyrene delivery boxes, founder Tushar Menon realised something needed to be done.
TUSHAR Menon and his brother Nishant, who co-founded the online meals company back in 2013, have always been environmentally conscious – but polystyrene foam boxes were the cheapest and most commonly used delivery mode when they started out.
However, while the business was growing, there were complaints from customers about the foam boxes – especially those who lived in smaller apartments. They would report that disposing of them was both difficult and environmentally unsound.
“People had cancelled their orders due to the boxes,” Menon said. “So once we found another solution, we won many of those customers back – and received lots of thank you emails about how happy they were with the change.”
But the right solution wasn’t immediately obvious.
“We started by trying waxed cardboard, but the insulation for the food was not great,” he said.
Then the company heard about Woolcool liners, which have been used by other food delivery companies such as HelloFresh, and are supplied by Planet Protector Packaging.
These liners, which can be re-used and recycled, are produced using 100 per cent pure wool and are an insulated packaging solution for perishable goods.
My Muscle Chef brought the Woolcool liners on board in November last year, trialled and tested them for a couple of months, and has been transitioning packaging across to them since April this year.
“They provide perfect insulation, and customers are very happy as they are fully recyclable, as are the cardboard boxes,” Menon said.
The Woolcool liners are also biodegradable, and the wool is compostable, and sustainable, and 100 per cent renewable, and the wool insulation outperforms polystyrene in terms of maintaining temperature
stability during transit, according to the company. “People care about these
kinds of things more now – in many cases one of the first questions customers will ask is ‘how do you deliver the food?’.
“This positions our company really well, and shows we’re
PACKAGING INNOVATION
“ People care about these kinds of things more now – in many cases one of the first questions customers will ask is ‘how do you deliver the food?’.”
supporting the environment – and matches our commitment to sustainability in other areas, including using grass-fed meats, hormone-free chicken and lamb, and locally sourced fruit and vegetables.”
Sustainability has always been a concern for the company, which upgraded to a solar- powered factory in Yennora, Sydney recently, and makes use of recycled water.
stores, including IGA, Foodworks, and BP, are now stocking the meals.
“Our plan is to keep pushing our retail product into the mass market in coming months, and really make a difference in people’slives,”Menonsaid. ✷
ABOVE: The My Muscle Chef meals are now well-insulated by Woolcool liners, which are recyclable, biodegradable, and compostable.
www.foodanddrinkbusiness.com.au | July 2018 | Food&Drink business | 39