Beginning today, the companies will debut meal kits at 100 of Byte’s 500-plus unattended retail sites throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento, with plans to expand into more than 500 locations over the next six months.
“Chef’d is a natural partner for Byte. Both companies share a goal to provide effortless access to fresh meals,” Megan Mokri, co-founder and CEO of Byte Foods, said in a statement. “At 4 pm, 80 percent of people don’t know what they’re having for dinner that night. By offering meal kits available for purchase in the office, Byte and Chef’d directly meet that last-minute delivery need while still allowing people to cook at home. It’s a win-win.”
The format will utilize Byte Foods “smart refrigerators” which are stocked with fresh salads, sandwiches, snacks, drinks and now meal kits. Purchases can be made by swiping a credit card in a reader on the smart refrigerator. The technology recognizes what was purchased and charges the customers’ credit card accordingly. Chef’d products available from the smart refrigerators include Smoky Maple Pork Loin with Swiss Chard and Mashed Sweet Potatoes; Weeknight Chicken Pad Thai with Carrots and Sugar Snap Peas; and 20 Clove Garlic Chicken with Mashed Purple Potatoes and Spinach.
“At Chef’d, our goal is to provide a rotating assortment of high-quality meal kits to more consumers in more places,” said Kyle Ransford, CEO of Chef’d in a statement. “By partnering with Byte Foods, we are able to bring our meal kits to a new channel, beyond our current direct to consumer and traditional retail distribution and provide an innovative solution for grabbing dinner just before you leave work.”
Each Chef’d meal kit contains two or more servings of ready-to-cook, pre-portioned ingredients, such as leafy greens and herbs, and USDA Choice proteins. Byte and Chef’d also plan to bring stand-alone, unattended Chef’d fridges to a select number of offices and residential apartment buildings throughout the Bay Area.
