Farmer’s Fridge New Points of Fresh Food Distribution Fuel Sales

Regular readers of this blog know that Steven Johnson, the Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® has nothing but nice things to say about Farmer’s Fridge as they grow and continue open up new points of fresh food distribution all while driving top line sales and bottom line profits.

For the rest of you Farmer’s Fridge, a Chicago-based company that is selling jarred salads via refrigerated vending machines.  Recently Farmer’s Fridge secured $30 million in venture capital funding which will propel the rate of growth and expand outside their current store base.

Farmer’s Fridge, currently operates 185 vending machines in Chicago and Milwaukee, largely in office buildings, hospitals, colleges and universities, and drug stores. It also runs a stand at a food hall in Chicago.  They have another 225 vending units are slated to be in operation by the end of the year, founder and CEO Luke Saunders told the Chicago Tribune recently.

The new round of investment will allow Farmer’s Fridge to add employees as well as some 400 to 500 locations across the Midwest by the end of 2019.  Farmer’s Fridge is a Tech-centric company, with menu items such as Smoked Cheddar Cobb Salad and Peach Caprese Salad, collects data to predict consumption and adjust its supply chain.

So just what is a ‘tech-centric’ salad company the Tribune reported that “The learnings that Farmer’s Fridge leverages are not one-time; using a robust data infrastructure, machine learning, and automation, the team can constantly experiment and drive agile development of both hardware and software. “In a world where less than 5% of vending machines have systems to track inventory, the Farmer’s Fridge team is light years ahead of the pack.”

Innovation Endeavors is the key investor in Farmer’s Fridge and was founded by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt to fund projects that focus on “transformational technology.” Farmer’s Fridge workers prepare all meals in a central kitchen. Vending machines are restocked each weekday. Unsold items are donated to area food pantries.   Where are you selling food?  Are you getting closer to your customers?

Foodservice Solutions® specializes in outsourced business development. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities or a new menu product segment and brand and menu integration strategy.  Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma WA is the global leader in the Grocerant niche visit Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant/ or twitter.com/grocerant