Only in the 21st century can consumers demand this oxymoron: Take-out home-cooked meals. They can demand it, because technology makes it possible. Like any historic process, this one also involves many ingredients. The healthy eating trend, together with increasing dissatisfaction with fast food, add to the recipe a career-oriented society with around-the-clock work schedules, and all the technological solutions made possible by the Internet, and the result is the rise of websites that connect home cooks to hungry consumers.
In Israel, there are three such ventures that stand out from the crowd: Yummi, Aroundish, and Homeals. All three make it possible to order home-cooked meals, prepared by professional chefs and home cooks at the click of the mouse, and provide easy-to-use service: You enter the website, look at the menus offered by the various cooks (most of whom appear on the homepage by first name only, perhaps to create a sense of intimacy and familiarity), select, pay, and order. On Yummi, you can order until 9:00 pm the night before, on the other two, you have until 11:00 am to decide what you would like for lunch. The prices are set by the cooks, in consultation with website management. It is not very cheap, but, knowing the clientele, it is certainly worthwhile, both because of the personal taste and the personalized cooking, and because of the ease of ordering and receiving delivery.
Today it is mostly great promise, but a promise nonetheless, because the whole field is still in its infancy. Obviously, in the pilot period, when there is no delivery fee or minimum order, customers will be satisfied. But, A) What will happen when the business becomes more established, and maybe even a bit more expensive?; and B) Is it even for the cook and/or the website owners to become profitable?
For all three websites we spoke with for this article, everything is riding on the delivery service. Yummi, which has been around for three years already, offered a delivery service early on, but then decided it would not work, and now the cooks are responsible for deliveries, and may charge only NIS 15 for the service. This is a significant burden for the cooks, who cannot afford to pay a service when they are starting out, and also for the customers, who need to pay for delivery. It also makes it difficult to order from a few different cooks, because you need to pay for each delivery separately.
The two newer services are trying to learn from pioneering Yummi’s mistakes. Aroundish refuses to disclose the unique distribution model it employs, and Homeals also refuses to explain how it will profit from the venture, despite the fact that the company pays couriers, and charges the cooks a small fee (and does not charge customers at all, even for a single portion).
“NIS 15,000 a month”
The cooks themselves form a diverse community: chefs who got fed up with around-the-clock work in blazing hot kitchens, mothers who enjoy cooking, and grandmothers who enjoy feeding people, and are looking to make a little extra cash. There are also a few, like Avner Shafrir, 40, from Ramat Hasharon, who until eighteen months ago was head of customer service at Israel Railways. His second daughter was born premature, and there was a need for one parent to stay home with her.
In consultation with his wife, he decided a year ago to revive his old passion and to build a home cooking business. Six months ago, he connected with Yummi, through which he reaches most of his customers.
“I am the second salary in our household; let’s put it that way,” he says of the possibility of profiting from the business. “My profit margin is not high, but all told, is still pays. I don’t have work every day, and I don’t make myself available to work every day. If one of the girls is sick, I stay with her. I try to cook until 12:00 pm, and at 12:00 to head out to make deliveries. If I worked somewhere else, I would leave early and come home late. Maybe I would have more money in my pocket, but this is my joy, and my hobby that has become a profession. I have flexibility, and I am my own boss.”
These were also the considerations of Hagar Porat, 28, mother of a 10-month old son, from Ramat Gan. 99% of Porat’s business comes through Yummi. Porat says that her revenue is NIS 15,000 per month, and that she actually manages to support herself while raising her son.
“Until a month ago, I did everything alone, but my order volume has grown, and my family helps me,” she explains. “In the last week or two, I brought in a partner, Yotam Harush, who helps with logistics and delivery.”
The payments to Yummi don’t erode your profits?
“The fee to Yummi is negligible compared with the help I get with customers. They are like my partners.”
Do you meet the end-customer? What is the added value you bring to your customers?”
“I don’t finalize an order without hearing the customer’s opinion. If a customer is low on iron or calcium, I make appropriate dishes. Families always order a market salad, made of fresh vegetables, turkey or chicken, schnitzel, beef, 2-3 side dishes. Parents are more willing to dare to order beet patties for their kids, which once they wouldn’t. The platform allows them to experiment.”
Galit Mizrachi, a cook who works with Aroundish, is a soon-to-be mother. Mizrachi, 39, worked in a number of top restaurants, including Arcadia and Bracha. “I manage to make a living because I have additional customers for whom I make special, healthy food. It’s very convenient. It’s better than working in a kitchen, and certainly better than working [in an office] and finishing at five or six.”
How much do you make a month?
“Around NIS 3,500 for 3 days a week, two and half hours in the morning.”
“It doesn’t mess up your cooking at home?”
“My partner is an architect and he arranged the kitchen for me in a very functional way,” she smiles.
Leah Grady worked in a top law firm for 20 years, and throughout the years dreamed of turning the compliments she received for her cooking into a business. A few months ago, when she heard about Homeals from a friend, she mustered the confidence to join. Now, she says, the income is modest - she estimates NIS 4,000 per month - but she enjoys it, and it is important to her that people enjoy: “It is hard work, but it is gratifying. I have fun. I like hearing that people eat, and getting their feedback.”
It’s like you brought food from home
The third party in this story is the customers, of course. Lea and Doron Ofek, for example, who live in Ramat Hasharon, order regularly from Yummi cooks: “We are very into healthy food, made from quality ingredients,” Lea explains. “Also as a mother on maternity leave, and also as a career mom, it feels good, that even if I am overwhelmed and I we don’t have time to cook ourselves, we don’t compromise on what our children eat.”
How is it better than ordering from a restaurant, for example?
“It is very convenient for me to place an order at 11:00 pm. That is one of the fun things. You don’t need to adjust to places’ opening hours. Also, it is a personal service. Often the cooks will call to clarify something, for example, if I ordered a certain quiche a few times already, they recommend that I try another, and send a sample. They are very nice, and open to any request.”
It’s not cheap, this treat
“Of course it costs more that it would to make it yourself. When I was on maternity leave, I sometimes ordered NIS 400 a week, and other times, it was NIS 220, or 260. It depends what you are looking for. We are looking for healthy food, from natural ingredients, so we frequent the expensive cooks, but there are a lot of deals on the website, and cooks who prepare less expensive food.”
Naturally, the target audience of these websites is office workers, who are fed up with fast food deliveries and expensive restaurants. Anat, for example, who works in South Tel Aviv, says there is no comparing the food she orders from Homeals with the food she ordered in the past: “This is very fresh food, with large portions, and since we started ordering we also try many vegetarian and vegan dishes. It costs 2-3 shekels more, but we are very happy. The fact that there is no minimum order allows us to order whenever we want, without being dependent on others. We have not been disappointed.”
Hanital Belinson Navon, partner at the law firm Yigal Arnon & Co. in Azrieli Towers, which participated in the Aroundish pilot, was also taken with the service: “I used to order from the stands in Azrieli and I really hated the depressing fast food. When you receive your delivery from the website, you feel like you brought food from home. The portions are big, and the prices are fair. It is not very cheap, but it competes nicely with the prices in the mall, and you get much more for your money. Right now, there is no delivery fee, and there is no minimum order, and it is very appetizing. It is food on par with good restaurants, and it costs much less. I also really connect to the personal concept: you know whom you are ordering from.”
Yummi
Hen Lev Ami, 33, from Kiryat Ono, is founder and CEO of Yummi. She used to work in software development and project management at SAP and at 888 Holding plc (LSE:888).
“A large community of cooks.”
Why did you start this business?
“I come from the world of technology, and I don’t know how to cook; I don’t like it, and I’m not good at it, and for many years, I missed home-cooked food. I searched and searched and I saw there were home cooks, but it was really disorganized, there was no marketplace. Within four days I quit my job and started Yummi.”
What is your business model
“We work on a fixed monthly payment from cooks; 3% of each order.”
What do the cooks get out of it?
“An active sales platform with a smart management system, access to a large customer base, active Facebook, PR, menu-building advice, and small-business consulting. Also, access to discount suppliers, and, of course, the social element - the cooks are part of a larger community of people who experience the same problems, experiences, and challenges. There are cooks’ meetings from time to time, and the cooks say that the meetings are exceptionally helpful to them.”
Aroundish
Aroundish was founded by Merav Sachs-Beit Levi, 36, from Tel Aviv, a lawyer by profession; Aviad Ashad, 32, formerly director of development at Mbox; and Dvorit Weinhaber-Penner, 37, a graphic designer (formerly for “G-Globes Magazine”), who owns her own design studio and also teaches at Shenkar College of Engineering, Design and Art.
”To open a virtual restaurant”
Why did you start this business?
Merav: “The idea stemmed from Dvorit and my needs as career moms. We never found time to cook the food we wanted our kids to eat. I live in Bizron, an ‘old-time’ Tel Aviv neighborhood, and every time I would come home after a day at work, or with my son in the afternoon, I would smell the food cooking in the neighbors’ homes. I thought how nice it would be if I knew what everyone was cooking and I could order. The idea developed from there.”
What is your business model?
“We work with revenue sharing commercial model. We charge the diners, deduct our expenses and a small fee, and pass the rest on to the chef.”
What do the cooks get out of it?
“We were received by the chefs’ community with open arms. The service allows them to effectively open a virtual restaurant without the need for a large initial investment that is involved with opening a restaurant, and so the difficulties do not stem from there. The main difficulties are logistical, so we set up a technology-based system to support our deliveries.”
Homeals
Homeals was founded by Meidad Hiknis, 32, from Kfar Saba, formerly a high-tech consultant, Koby Hadad, 35, from Petah Tikva, who says with a smile, “My formal education comes from founding 18 companies, so far.”
“Sick of industrial food”
Why did you start this business?
Hadad: “We are both people who eat out a lot, and we want to eat healthier food that is not industrial. We have reached an age where we feel it when we eat fast food. On the other hand, my mother in law is an amazing cook, who makes fabulous Hungarian food - one of those cooks to whom you say: ‘you have to open a restaurant.’ I thought that if my mother in law could support herself from something she really enjoys instead of temporary jobs, that could be a huge thing. When we dug in to the numbers a little deeper, we found that unemployment rates in these age brackets are astounding. 50% of people 45 and over who lose their jobs do not succeed in finding new ones. We created a process in which men and women alike can, with an automated registration process, open a page themselves, photograph their food, and make a living. We have reached very nice numbers. There is potential to make NIS 7,000 a month working three hours a day.”
What is your business model?
“We charge a fee for each meal that sold through the site, and we offer premium services, which we cannot discuss at this stage.”
What do the cooks get out of it?
Hiknis: “As a home cook, I know that many have thought about opening a boutique restaurant and feeding other people at least once, but needing to deal with the operations side of things and with the business risks of the restaurant world relegated those thoughts to the realm of dreams. Homeals makes it possible for all those people to focus on their true passion for cooking, as much as they want to, and however they choose to, by focusing more on food, and less on the business and management side. We are developing and will continue to develop many tools that give cooks the maximum flexibility to manage their virtual kitchens independently.”
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on September 21, 2014
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