In these difficult times little has probably changed since the Eurest Lunchtime Report of 2006, which found that the average lunch break was only 28 minutes long, while one in five UK workers ate while working or did not take a break at all. If anything, the situation may have worsened as workers are under even more pressure. With this in mind it is important that vending provides ’food to go’ that is good quality, with healthy options, as well as being 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. Key business sectors now using the Bon Appetit service include hospitals, the military, call centres, education, finance, manufacturing and logistics/distribution, with clients including John Radcliffe Hospital, RAF, Virgin Atlantic, Cambridge University, Barclays, Honda, Nestle and  P&G.

Bon Appetit launched the ‘Little Tasty Food Outlet’ at AVEX 2005 and later won the award for ‘Best Workplace Management Product/Service’ in the Total Workplace Management Innovation Awards 2006. This success was based on 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. The ‘Little Tasty Food Outlet’ combines Bon Appetit’s unique food products and the latest in vending technology to provide the breakthroughs that the catering market have been looking for, which are the need for healthy, quality food, available anytime, which you can simply heat and eat in minutes.

Keith said: “With the difficult economic conditions of recent years showing no signs of abating the business community continue to focus their attention on reducing costs. A key area receiving attention is whether staff/customers can be served high quality, 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 available 24 hours a day and saves over 90% of the cost of a conventional workplace canteen. In addition, in a retail environment it is a profit generator.

A good recent example is GSK, which on two of their UK sites  introduced a total of 5 Bon Appetit hot 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. Also, as the food is stored frozen there is no wastage, which is a big benefit for caterers who generally experience large food wastage costs with their own service.

The rapid expansion of the Bon Appetit service has mainly been achieved by working closely with the contract catering and facility management companies, such as Sodexo, Compass and ISS. “We are seen as a complementary service that can be used to better serve the needs of their clients,” said Keith,  continuing. “We are mainly used as a ‘wrap around’ service, with Bon Appetit’s hot food being available outside of the canteen opening times. Often, the canteen opening times can be reduced to core times, unlocking substantial savings, whilst providing the client with a hot food service 24 hours a day. Indeed, using the Bon Appetit service has been of strategic benefit to the contract caterers and facility management companies, for we have been used to help them retain important contracts and acquire new clients.”

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. The ‘food to go’ favourites from the menu include Breakfast Muffins, Paninis, Baguettes, Beanys, Cheeseburgers & Pastry Rolls, and their restaurant range satisfies those with a larger appetite. Breakfast items are a feature of the menu, with 8 products to choose from, including breakfast paninis and bacon baguettes. Healthier eating is a bigger issue these days and to satisfy this the Bon Appetit’s menu contains several healthier choices such as the Mediterranean Vegetable Panini and the Beef Chilli Con Carne with Rice.

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 ‘food to go’ products make up 75% of our sales – paninis, baguettes, beanys and burgers, and now the breakfast muffins, which offer a choice of sausage & egg or bacon & egg. This is because they are hot and tasty, ready to eat in just 60 seconds, and fit into society’s snacking and grazing culture.”

The company also offers a free tasting service for potential clients to assess the food for taste, quality and variety, for as Keith says: “It’s all about the food. Tastings are essential as 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. The general consensus at taste tests is: ‘Wow! I wasn’t expecting that.’”

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 and beyond, hot food vending has come into its own, as a cost saving service. We based our analysis of the service on the consumption of food in the workplace and have addressed all the key issues identified by staff which were food taste, variety (including healthy options) and quality, together with convenience, ease of use and speed. Our key focus however, as it should be, is on the quality of the food.”

Bon Appetit has developed a unique range of packaging which ensures the frozen product is heated consistently in the scanner microwaves provided in 60 to 100 seconds for the breaded products and from 3.5 minutes for the meals.  All products are bar coded to use with the scanner microwaves, which mean the products are cooked precisely to the time registered. “This makes them totally ‘fool proof' and even more convenient,” said Keith.

Another key feature of the packaging, which is all recyclable, is that full nutritional information is displayed enabling the customer to make an informed choice before buying a product. The information displayed on the front of the package features calories, sugars, fat, saturates and salt content, with the percentages each one represents of an adult’s guideline daily allowance. This transparency is important in today’s marketplace as consumers demand to know just what they are eating.

Being a breakthrough service for the catering market, the applications for this sort of service are endless, insists Keith: “We are moving it from the workplace into retail and public spaces - basically anywhere where there is a large footfall. The service is ideal for workplace sites such as call centres and distribution centres, and retail sites such as railway stations, seaports, airports and leisure centres.”

For more information or to arrange a visit to the Bon Appetit showroom in Gatwick visit www.hotfoodvending.com or phone 0800 085 6975.

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