Set to launch at the HRC (Hotel, Restaurant & Catering show) on 20-22 March, the ‘first of its kind service’ will help to combat shift workers having less nutritionally rich diets, with fewer fruit and vegetables, higher sugars and saturated fats.
COOK is a B-Corp, where companies are verified by B Lab to meet high standards of social and environmental performance, transparency and accountability.
Chris Portwood, COOK chief sales officer, said: “The launch of our vending machines comes at an important time for the food and beverage industry which in recent years has struggled to provide employees and residents with regular healthy meals due to an unprecedented, and unpredictable shift in working patterns due to the rise in remote/flexible working.
“Helping to provide healthy and affordable options to the UKs workforce, our new service will help to reduce food wastage and support companies trying to improve the health and wellbeing of their teams by giving access to more healthy convenient food options.
“We plan to launch a minimum of 15 machines this year as we hone our proposition and start to work through manufacturing timelines and requirements from prospective partners. To begin with, the focus will be large offices with requirements for out-of-hours working, residential accommodation, student accommodation and universities with a captive on-site audience of over 500.”
By combining frozen food and vending through an ‘innovative partnership’ with retail solutions provider Mother, it is now able to offer fresh food and minimise waste, in an industry which has predominantly been reliant on offering fast food options.
All vending machine items will be sold as ‘complete meals’ that are suitable for microwaving, with vegetarian and low-calorie options, starting from £4.75. Dishes include sticky soy glazed beef, hearty chicken casserole and portobello mushroom risotto.
Phil Davison, founder & chief executive of Mother, added: “We’re thrilled to be supporting COOK on this new venture, helping them develop an entirely new revenue stream and marketing channel for their business. Using our state of-the-art software platform, we’ve developed what we believe is the UK’s first truly smart frozen vending machine.
“Our machines have all been specifically built with the customer in mind, creating highly engaging and simplified automated retail experiences, designed to build customer loyalty and trust. The interactive user interface, cashless and mobile payments, product filtering, nutritional information, product animations and special offers all contribute to what customers are demanding nowadays - a modern day digital retail experience.”