‘Rapid growth’ for meals on wheels despite cost of living pressures

Time poor parents are continuing to choose convenience over cost,despite rising interest rates and inflation,giving kid-friendly ready meal company Go! Kidz’s expansion plans a big thumbs up.

The Sydney-based company announced its partnership with one of Australia’s largest food manufacturers,Kitchen Food Company,early last month,as the ready meal sector continues to boom post lockdown. Data from Ibisworld shows that the sector has grown at an average of 3.3 per cent a year over the past decade.

Go! Kidz founder Jeremy Crooks said there was “nothing available” when it came to healthy ready-meal options for kids.

Go! Kidz founder Jeremy Crooks said there was “nothing available” when it came to healthy ready-meal options for kids.Flavio Bracaleone

Go! Kidz founder Jeremy Crooks said it was his experience as a parent trying to get his kids to eat more vegetables that prompted the former Google head of commerce to start exploring healthy child-friendly options in the sector.

“I really thought it was the responsibility of food producers to ensure that the food they’re making has at least some degree of nourishment for customers.”

Since its launch in April 2020,the company currently delivers to more than 3000 customers and is stocked in 80 independent supermarkets. Crooks says that on average,customers order about 15 to 20 dishes at a time,which can last between one and three weeks.

“We are still a relatively small business ...[the partnership] allows us to take advantage of[Kitchen Food’s supply chain and cost structure] so we can try to keep our endpoint to the customer as low as we can,” Crooks said of the recent partnership.

Kitchen Food has factories in NSW,Victoria and Queensland and claims to produce an excess of 300,000 fresh food units per week.

“We naturally believe in the convenience space in general,and we think that Go! Kidz business has something to offer that is relatively unique in market,” said Daniel Borenstein,co-CEO of Kitchen Foods Group.

“There aren’t too many family focused ready-meal offerings currently. That’s what we liked about the brand,” he added. “What do we bring to the partnership? It’s the ability to scale significantly and safely,so the[Go! Kidz] brand can continue to develop.”

Despite the rising cost of living pressures,neither Borenstein nor Crooks is overly concerned with its impact to their respective businesses. Go! Kidz raised its prices by 8 per cent two months ago and is yet to register a drop in sales.

“Of course there is a price point at which people wouldn’t buy dishes or meals,but we haven’t found that yet. Sales are still really strong,” Crooks said.

Meanwhile,the latest ABS data shows that household spending has increased by 18.4 per cent through the year,with food spend up by 2 per cent in July – a slight decrease from May and June.

Borenstein noted that “almost all” of his clients have hiked up their prices,with the remaining few absorbing costs and decreasing profit margins.

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Carla Jaeger is a sports reporter at The Age

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