New food delivery startup hits Melbourne

Foodifox hopes to offer a serious alternative in the food delivery sector, writes Nina Hendy.

Launching a hospitality business in Melbourne during a pandemic isn’t for the faint hearted.

But that’s exactly what Shawn Yi and Tangent Wong decided to do last year, conceptualising the business model and technology and bootstrapping the launch during lockdown.

The co-founders share a mutual love of food. “Over a long dinner and some brainstorming, we realised the great recipes and dishes they had grown up with or enjoyed with friends could one day cease to exist if someone didn’t keep the flame alive,” says Yi, who has a background in project management and development management.

So Foodifox was launched last year, giving Melburnians a new player in the food delivery service market. Recipes are submitted by customers who share their favourites or old family recipes, which the startup’s chefs add to their menu.

Customers order through an app and it’s delivered to a thermal locker located in high density parts of Melbourne. Drivers can deliver up to 100 meals across to up to five drop-off points. The business has plans to expand the number of lockers, further bolstering revenue.

By scanning the QR code on the side of the packaging of each meal, customers can see how the meal was created.

But the real difference in the Foodifox model lies in their contactless delivery model.

The team prepares the food in a centralised kitchen each day, delivering it to 20 different drop-off points, placing it in ‘state-of-the-art’ heated lockers, which are unlocked by customers using a QR code.

Serving up a local delivery option

Yi, in the role of chief executive for the startup, says his passion lies in making high quality, healthy food using enviro-friendly packaging and delivering it at a competitive price. He’s spent this first year in business prototyping and building the thermal locker technology, and developer the customer and driver apps.

The business offers a unique ‘kitchen to workplace’ concept that is unrivalled in the local market. “We produce our own food and deliver by midday to a platform controlled thermal locker,” he explains.

What started with a café in Queen Street, Melbourne and has stretched to a second café, with a concerted effort into the south eastern suburbs underway. Foodifox is now in the process of raising capital to fund further growth to invest in technological and operational growth ahead of a national expansion, starting with Sydney.

Of course, Foodifox launches into a food delivery sector and the broader gig economy that has been under scrutiny in recent months, but Yi believes his model champions an ethical path given that deliveries are made to a dedicated heated locker facility.

Stacking up: Revenue of $50k per month and climbing

While it’s early days, the model has been a hit with customers.

Foodifox is already turning over around $50,000 a month in revenue – even through restricted workplace limits and lockdowns. Conservative modelling suggests return to work capacity at a level of 60 percent means the business can double its revenue by Q1 2022.

Yi was determined to keep all staff during Melbourne’s most recent lockdown, pivoting and adapting their model, contacting their customers who were forced to work from home and offering to deliver meals to their front door.

They have big plans for the future, including national growth that begins with moving into Sydney.

Foodifox is also developing a school locker solution — offering a platform for parents to ensure their child has a hot meal each day at an affordable price.

Key metrics for success include new locker installations, more app downloads, more lunches ordered and more driver delivery activity, he says.