Wyke continued: “One British worker in five never takes a lunch break, according to a survey by the catering providers Eurest. The average lunch break for workers remains at a record low of only 27 minutes. Women are the most workaholics, with one in four working through lunch.”

With that in mind, it is vital that the industry can provide food on the go that is healthy as well as convenient.

Keith Pordum is the CEO of Bon Appetit, which is based in Gatwick. He has been in the food business since 1995, following a successful career in business banking and management consultancy. It was his ‘home delivery’ business of gourmet food, called Spencers, which gave him the idea for Bon Appetit. Spencers’ clients, of whom there are 30,000 in the Home Counties, were regularly asking whether a similar quality of food could be supplied into the workplace. This led to the development of Bon Appetit’s ‘Little Tasty Food Outlet’.

The rest, as they say, is history, as Bon Appetit has quickly developed into the leading provider within the UK of hot food vending, supplying a wide range of clients such as Honda, Unilever, Virgin Atlantic, ITN, John Radcliffe Hospital and Princess Royal Barracks.

Bon Appetit launched the ‘Little Tasty Food Outlet’ at AVEX 2005, and won the award for most popular small stand at the exhibition. This success was followed by two years of research and development after identifying a gap in the ‘workplace consumption’ market for a low cost, high quality, 24/7, hot food vending service.

By combining Bon Appetit’s unique food products and the latest in vending technology, the company offers a healthy, cost effective, 24/7 virtual restaurant experience. Its solution satisfies the key trends and needs of this semi-captive audience, primarily the need for healthy, quality food, available anytime, which you can simply heat and eat in minutes.

Bon Appetit’s menu offers breakfast and hot snacks items, such as paninis, baguettes, pastry rolls & burgers, a restaurant range of complete meals, healthy, vegetarian and low fat options, ice cream and food on the go to suit all tastes and lifestyles.

Keith said: “The difficult economic conditions of 2009 have focused companies’ attention firmly on reducing costs, and this will continue into 2010 and beyond. A key area that has received attention is whether staff/customers can be served hot food more cost effectively than at present. Well, the answer is a resounding yes, and Bon Appetit has been reaping the benefits with our hot food vending service.

“What sets Bon Appetit’s Hot Food Vending Service apart from other catering solutions is that it is not only available 24/7 but also saves over 90% of the cost of a conventional canteen.”

A good recent example is GSK, which on two of their UK sites is introducing a total of 5 Bon Appetit food service modules to cater for night and weekend shifts. These are the times of day that conventional canteens, with their higher overhead, can be costly to provide. Bon Appetit fits the bill nicely, as the machines can be time locked so as not to take sales away from the contract caterer’s canteen during key opening hours.

But, although cost savings is a big incentive in considering the Bon Appetit service, it really boils down to just how good the hot food offering is. Based on research, they identified that the demand is for high quality, tasty food, that is quick to prepare, with plenty of choice and variety. Their service is all about the quality and range of food, which is exclusive to Bon Appetit (apart from the ice creams!). The ‘hot snack’ favourites from the menu include Paninis, Baguettes, Beanys, Burgers & Pastry Rolls, and their restaurant range satisfies those with a larger appetite. Breakfast items are a feature of the menu, and include breakfast paninis and bacon baguettes. Add to this ice cream, vegetarian and low fat healthy options, and all needs are catered for.

The company also offers a free tasting service for up to 8 people to assess the food for taste, quality and variety, as Keith says: “It’s all about the food.”

Offering Vending International an insight to the origins of the hot food phenomenon, Keith continued: “We are creating the market. Nothing like this existed in 2004/5. With the recession, hot food vending has come into its own, as a cost saving service. We based our analysis of the service on work-based consumption and found that, as a nation, we spend £13.2 billion a year on food in the workplace - it’s a big, competitive market. We have addressed all the key issues, a major one of which is speed. Our focus however, is as it should be, on the quality of the food - we use a lower tech solution, choosing to spend our money on developing our recipes and packaging solutions.”

Bon Appetit has just launched new special cook-in bags with bar codes, and microwaves with bar code scanners, which mean the products will be cooked precisely to the time registered. “This makes them totally ‘idiot proof’ and even more convenient,” said Keith.

“We mainly offer the self managed service - delivering food to an on site freezer. The catering industry does not see us as competition, but as a complementary service. If our customer has a canteen, we will offer to put a timer on the machine so that when the canteen is open, the machine is off offering a service only when closed.”

The recession has, however, forced many businesses to look at their overheads. “For those looking at ways of cost cutting, it’s a no brainer,” says Keith. “By choosing a hot food vending machine over a traditional canteen, not only can you save up to 90% of your costs, but you have the added benefit of being able to provide tasty meals 24 hours a day, seven days a week, making for a happier and more productive workforce. In our experience it is often those working night shifts and at weekends who get overlooked.”

Applications for this sort of service are endless insists Keith: “You could move it from the workplace into retail and public spaces - basically anywhere where there is a large footfall. The rest of the market perceives what we do as difficult, but it helps I suppose, that we are from the Food Industry, not the Vending Industry. The service is ideal for workplace sites such as call centres and distribution centres, and retail sites such as rail, sea and airports and leisure centres.”

In what is one of life’s many contradictions we are on the one hand an increasingly health conscious society, while on the other we love food to go too much to give it up. Asked what his most popular products were, Keith didn’t hesitate in his reply: “Hot breaded products make up 75% of our sales – paninis, baguettes and burgers, and now the Beany: a large pastry roll filled with sausage and beans. This is because they are hot and tasty, ready to eat in 60 to 100 seconds, and fit into society’s snacking and grazing culture.”

Talking of health, Keith adds: “People have low expectations of this type of food: as soon as you mention the words ‘vending’, ‘frozen food’ and ‘microwave’ the assumption is that it will be low quality. All our food is however, handmade to restaurant quality as we also operate in the home delivery market and the general consensus at taste tests is: ‘Wow! I wasn’t expecting that.’”

The Healthy Choices Range reflects the company’s commitment to high quality, healthy food. From meals such as Mediterranean Tomato Pasta with onions, paprika, oregano and sage to food to go such as their Chicken Burger (chicken pieces with sweetcorn relish in a burger bun) this is quality food but without the calorie count or the price tag!

For more information or to arrange a visit to the Bon Appetit showroom in Gatwick visit www.hotfoodvending.com

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