SOUTH AFRICA – Ucook, South Africa – based food-tech company, in collaboration with its sister entity Faithful to Nature (FTN), has expanded its grocery delivery capabilities to a much larger, national scale with acquisition of Granadilla Eats.
Granadilla Eats is an online food and fresh produce delivery service launched at the start of the pandemic in March 2020, and was born out of the need for a reliable home-delivery service for groceries.
Also, its shift from being a swimwear brand, was to offer vital assistance required to keep smaller food-producing businesses in operation.
Granadilla Eats cofounder Hannah Duxbury terms the acquisition as a route-to-market for many small, local food operations that would not necessarily have access to the kind of scale or opportunity the deal affords.
“This partnership will unlock so much more value for the small-scale farms and small businesses we built Granadilla Eats for.
“Our small effort to provide a platform has just been amplified by the awesome UCook and FTN teams,” Cofounder Adam Duxbury adds.
UCook, best known for its weekly meal-kit delivery service, also launched a fresh produce offering in 2020, named the UCook Market Box.
“By supporting regenerative farming practices, we can work towards revolutionizing our local food system and have a meaningful impact on communities and people’s livelihoods.”
Peter Allerstorfer – UCook CEO
But as lockdown conditions eased, the brand returned to focusing on its core offering as well as new launches in the frozen category, reports BizCommunity.
Peter Allerstorfer, UCook CEO said, “This acquisition of Granadilla Eats continues our focus on showcasing the incredible work farmers and food producers do in our communities.
“By supporting regenerative farming practices, we can work towards revolutionising our local food system and have a meaningful impact on communities and people’s livelihoods.”
The new offering will leverage all three brands’ substantial network of small-scale food growers and producers.
The company’s key focus this year is to continue adding complementary services and offerings to the platform, beyond the successful meal-kit subscription service.
In March, Ucook added baby food to its existing meal kit delivery service.
The ready-made baby range of food is available for all the stages of weaning of babies and is made from fresh, whole ingredients that have no added preservatives or sugar.
The new meals are freezable for up to three-months. In an ode to maintaining environmentally production measures, the ready-made baby food products are delivered in recyclable tubs with a spoon.
The nutritional content of each UCOOK Baby tub has been formulated according to the ESPGHAN dietary guidelines for feeding infants, overseen by a dietician.
Every tub is prepared with high-pressure processing (HPP) and is cold pasteurised in pure water.
High pressure purified water keeps packaging pathogen-free, which also keeps it fresher for longer, and essential vitamins and minerals remain intact without the need for added preservatives.
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