Entrepreneurial spirit: Arthur Crawford (right) and Joe Scott, co-founders of Meez. Photo / Supplied
Arthur Crawford, 26, co-founder of hybrid meal kit/takeaway business Meez, explains what it is like servicing the country's struggling hospitality sector, taking the plunge into business ownership and working on expansion plans behind the scenes.
What does your business do?
Meez is an online meal delivery kit platform. We partner with top New Zealand restaurants and chefs and effectively give them a platform to market and sell pre-prepared dinner kits and other food and beverage products to customers across the country.
We started with a soft launch pilot back in August last year during Auckland's lockdown to test the proof of concept and we officially launched the business two and a half weeks ago.
What was the motivation for starting it?
Meez was started with the genuine desire to help restaurants connect with the New Zealand market at large. Hospitality has been doing it particularly tough over the last few years but even before Covid, it had high overheads, tight profit margins and a range of issues that made it incredibly difficult to operate at times. We figured there was always going to be the need for in-restaurant experiences but consumer habits are definitely changing and we're living in a world where convenience is more and more the expectation.
Covid has been a massive catalyst for these types of changes across the world but what we've tried to captured with Meez is give restaurants the ability to go online - the hope is we can provide them with a steady, viable additional revenue stream, and open up their market to every consumer in New Zealand.
The first lockdown in 2020, a few restaurants were doing some form of at-home takeaway and I remember trying one from Logan Brown in Wellington and it was absolutely amazing, and it wasn't just the food that was amazing; it was the integrated cooking and dining experience, which I loved, so once restaurants opened back up everyone pivoted back to their in-restaurant operation and we just saw a big gap in the market for something like this. That's when our discussion with restaurants began and we started feeling out pain points.
How big is your team?
Currently it is just Joe and myself in the business. We will be looking to recruit a few more team members as we grow over the next six months.
How was your business funded?
Co-founder Joe Scott and I have bootstrapped it to date with our own savings. We've got big growth plans for the next 12-18 months and outside funding might be considered at some point to assist this, but it is not something we are considering in the immediate future. So far we have invested about $30,000 to get it to where it is today.
How are you finding being in business so far?
It is really positive. We've had amazing feedback from customers and it has been really positive from restaurants. We're starting to build some really good relationships and it has been great so far. We get a lot of repeat business every few weeks and we've had about 100 orders over the past two weeks. We did well over 1000 during our pilot over lockdown and have so far generated over $100,000 in revenue into restaurants' pockets.
What's your focus right now?
We have big growth plans for 2022. In terms of our focuses, the key few at the moment are trying to connect with as many restaurants as possible. Selling food products online is a new thing for a lot of restaurants but it is something we think that can really be embedded in their business plan moving forward, giving them a little bit of certainty.
The second focus is connecting with the customer. Auckland has been familiarised with meal kits probably more so than the rest of New Zealand. Everyone who tries Meez genuinely seems to love it so we're working to get our business out there and educating customers that this is an awesome option for their Friday night dinner. It's up to the restaurant in terms of price; we encourage restaurants to offer whatever they would like on the platform. It could be a cookbook that they sell in their restaurant or it could be a four course banquet for five people; there is quite a big variance and we want that variance because it reflects the uniqueness of each restaurant.
What are your plans for growth?
At the moment we are offering delivery to Auckland, Hamilton and Tauranga, and we will be adding Christchurch and Wellington in the next few weeks. One of the key focuses is to keep expanding with that nationwide roll out where we can offer reliable overnight courier to pretty much anywhere in New Zealand, so working on our logistics network will allow us to expand the business. We want to be the platform for New Zealand's best restaurants and so we're already in discussions with restaurants in other cities around New Zealand, including in Wellington, so the next big plan is to start bringing on restaurants from other areas in New Zealand; award-winning restaurants, but also local gems that deserve to be discovered.
How do you make money?
We take a commission of each sale that is made through the platform.
How are you finding being in business, especially operating in an industry essentially crippled by the pandemic?
Joe and I are really enjoying it. Being in business is very new to both of us so there is a lot of learning on the job and building the plane as it flies for want of a better phrase, but so far so good. We're in such a fortunate industry where all the characters in hospitality are just amazing and everyone is friendly. People aren't in the industry [right now] to make millions and millions of dollars, they are in the industry for the love of food and for the love of giving people this experience.
How much competition are you facing in this food delivery space?
There are players like Uber Eats, which obviously offer takeaways, and then My Food Bag or Hello Fresh, which do a dinner kit, but we're in this sweet little hybrid middle ground where we are not takeaways and we're not a dinner where you have to spend half an hour prepping, chopping and doing all of the dishes. Everything is pre-prepared by the restaurant to the point where it is 90 per cent complete so the customer really just has to finish, ensemble and serve at home. We see there is massive value in having that cooking and dining integrated experience - we want to empower customers and make them feel like the heroes in their home serving up beautiful food.
What advice do you give to others thinking about starting their own business?
I wish I was told this a little bit sooner; be brave and take the plunge. Life's too short to have big regrets and there must be an incredible amount of ideas out there that people for various reasons haven't pursued. Business is not all glamour and fun - it involves a lot of hard work and grinding behind the scenes, but it is incredibly fulfilling, so stick with it and put your head down during the hard times and enjoy it.
The Government has committed funding to the sector in an effort to support future plans.