My Food Bag’s flash new premises

Continued growth for market leading home food delivery provider My Food Bag has seen the company move into a new building in Parnell. 

Reflecting the runaway success of convenient delivery of quality ingredients for Kiwis to prepare varied meals, a standout feature of the new building is an entire floor dedicated to My Food Bag’s Development Kitchen.

Founder and co-CEO Cecilia Robinson says the need for expanded and purpose-built premises became clear with the meteoric rise of My Food Bag since its 2013 introduction. “We started on the notion that the simple question of ‘what’s for dinner tonight’ was quite hard to answer. By giving New Zealanders’ healthier and more varied answers, we’ve rapidly grown to where we can serve more customers more effectively from our new building.”

Robinson is enthusiastic about the latest big move to the new premises, particularly the Development Kitchen. “A big part of our success lies in the work Nadia and the team put in to the development and testing of ingredients and recipes for all the My Food Bag and Bargain Box offerings,” she says.

Fully decked out with Fisher & Paykel equipment, the Development Kitchen is a chef’s dream, with state-of-the-art appliances and whiteware delivering an ideal location for the team to carefully assess options for its loyal customers. “We even have a two-station Photography Kitchen where each dish undergoes a fashion shoot after making it through the stringent evaluation process,” Robinson adds.

The administrative hub of the business is kept close to operations. Upstairs in the new building, My Food Bag hosts its Operations, Procurement, Finance, Marketing, Digital and Customer Love teams.

Robinson explains: “We put a lot of work into making sure every My Food Bag experience is positive. Customer delight is our objective overall, and the Customer Love Team plays a major role in making that happen.”

The new building fit-out, was designed and project managed by Platform Consulting Group who also acted as Tenant Advisor.

Robinson is founder and Co-CEO alongside her husband James Robinson. They founded the business together with New Zealand businesswoman Theresa Gattung and celebrity chef Nadia Lim, and Nadia’s husband, Carlos Bagrie.

This isn’t the first big move made by My Food Bag, which provides a service where customers order online and receive food bags containing recipes for a week’s main dinner meals. Within five months of inception, My Food Bag expanded operations to Hamilton and Wellington and soon added new products such as the Family Bag and developed innovative offerings such as a Christmas Food Bag and a Gluten Free Bag.

In July 2014, My Food Bag extended its reach across the Tasman and by the end of that year the Bay of Plenty and the greater Waikato region, Tauranga and Christchurch were on stream. In 2015, Palmerston North, Dunedin, Whangarei, Rotorua, Hawke’s Bay and New Plymouth had all been added.

Business legend Kevin Roberts joined the team as a shareholder and chair in 2015.

The big move for June 2016 saw My Food Bag expand its offering with the launch of the Bargain Box brand. Super affordable, Bargain Box cuts the frills to deliver great value ingredients and recipes while providing plenty of leftovers (or meals for unexpected guests).

Also in 2016, Waterman Capital took a stake in the business as part of its evolution towards readying for a potential IPO; while the financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed, the company said it was one of the biggest private equity deals done in New Zealand involving a young business.

Last month My Food Bag went on to launch Fresh Start with Nadia, a brand new product range designed specifically for people who want to lose and manage their weight. This rapid growth means the company delivers more than one million meals to New Zealanders each month.