Hi everyone,
Five years ago we quit our jobs to pursue our dream of starting our own business that could one day reach a lot of people .. and Mindful Chef was born!
We started out in our apartment in South London, packing boxes, designing menus, photographing dishes with our dad’s old SLR camera (!), delivering in our own little van and set out on an exciting (and sometimes exhausting) journey.
The past five years have flown by. We’ve grown our little team, moved into a proper office (then moved out, thanks Covid!) and have brought healthy meals to thousands of households across the UK.
Since launching we’ve certified as a B-Corp, donated over 5 million school meals to children living in poverty, attracted some amazing support and investment from a loyal community of over 800 crowdfunders (including Sir Andy Murray and Victoria Pendleton) and we’ve had our fair share of fun building a business that we are proud of and is a force for good along the way.
Today, we are embarking on an exciting next chapter. We are delighted to let you know we have brought on-board an experienced partner to support us on our next stage of the journey and help bring Mindful Chef’s mission of making healthy eating easy to thousands of more people.
We are pleased to welcome Nestlé, one of the world’s leading food and beverage companies, as our new partner to help drive our mission forward even further. Working with Nestlé will help us realise our vision in a very competitive and challenging industry.
As part of always being open, transparent and as honest as possible, we wanted to answer any questions openly that you may have about this announcement (listed below).
Finally, we want to say an enormous thank you to all of our customers (many of whom are investors) who backed us and believed in our vision from day one. We truly appreciate every single ounce of support. We are very grateful and are excited about bringing our healthy mission to more people.
If there’s anything else, feel free to get in touch at [email protected]
Myles & Giles
Will the service change for customers?
Not at all. One of the conditions of the deal is that our wonderful suppliers, our values, our ethics and our team will stay exactly as they have always done. We will continue to operate as a completely standalone business. Nothing is changing for our customers.
What about the suppliers, will the quality change?
Absolutely not. We’re proud of what makes us different from competitors and will continue to champion local, ethically-run producers who share our values. We’ll continue to use the very best quality ingredients – our free-range chicken, grass-fed beef and sustainably sourced fish are what make us different and are going nowhere.
Will Mindful Chef’s meals continue to be healthy?
Of course, our mission from day one has always been to make healthy eating easy. It’s the reason we exist. Our change in investor will not change the quality of our food or the decisions we make around health – we will always put healthy eating first. We’ll continue to focus on nutritious delicious meals, loaded with nutritious veg and the highest quality proteins. And will never include any cheap fillers like bread or white pasta.
Will you still make your own decisions? Will you be leaving?
We aren’t going anywhere, we love Mindful Chef far too much! We’re also incredibly proud of the fantastic team we’ve put in place at Mindful Chef and are super excited they’re joining us on this next stage of growth. Whilst we’ve shifted from a group of different investors on our board, who helped us in our early years, to one long-term investor on our board that can help us continue our journey in the future, nothing will change in the management team or decision making. We will still run the business alongside the current fantastic team.
What does this mean for our current investors?
As many of you will know, we brought on board over 800 crowdfunding investors from two rounds on Seedrs in 2016 and Crowdcube in 2017. Without these people, we wouldn’t be here today. We owe them a lot of thanks for believing in our vision at such an early stage. An overwhelming 90% of startups sadly never make it for a whole host of reasons, but with this group’s collective support, we have been able to disrupt one of the most competitive and hardest industries to enter. And make real change for the better!
For this next stage of our journey, we believe that having one strategic investor will help us navigate the next challenging phase and thus we are allowing our current investors to exit. We are delighted to be able to thank these people in that way, given the number of startups that fail, it really delights us to know that so many friends, family and customers who risked so much can now be thanked for their support and the risks they took in backing us.
Why choose Nestle as an investor?
We were lucky to have a lot of interest from a wide variety of parties. We narrowed the interested parties down over the course of the last few months meeting (and zooming!) with as many as possible to learn and understand their visions, their experience they could bring and their plans for the future. Nestlé stood out as they have obvious experience in the food and drink sector to help us grow.
However, more so, we liked the fact that Nestlé cited Mindful Chef as a company with clear values, clear purpose, and clear standards in regards to our impact on the environment and our focus on our community.
Nestlé and Mindful Chef share the same ambition to make healthy eating easy for more consumers whilst paying close attention to how ingredients are sourced and reducing food waste. It means this is an ideal partnership for both parties as Nestlé continues to transform its portfolio and Mindful Chef accelerates its growth plans.
We passionately believe that looking to the future, rather than the past presents an exciting opportunity, and as such we are proudly going to show how we can bring an impact. This vote of confidence by Nestlé in the way we use business as a force for good has serious potential to add positively to the world’s largest food and beverage organisation. We are excited by the impact we can make.
Will you still be a B Corp?
Absolutely – this was a point high on our agenda and essential for any incoming partner to agree to. Not only did Nestle agree but it’s also part of our contract moving forward. We believe there is a better way of doing business – focusing on people and planet as well as profit – and we’re going to make sure Mindful Chef is a leading example of this.
Why do you need this investment?
Over the last five years, we have built a business from our apartment that is boldly disrupting a category and industry that is one of the oldest, largest and most competitive in the UK.
To do this, it not only requires a lot of hard work from our wonderful team, but it also requires investment in our early years to keep growing and improving our service for our customers.
We need to raise more money to invest in our packing operations, our technology platform, our marketing, our team and ultimately make our product even better for you, our customers. We are just at the beginning of an exciting journey!
Will you continue to work with the charity One Feeds Two?
Absolutely, this is one of our proudest achievements over the last five years, having donated over five million school meals to children living in poverty to date. This will not change and we’ll still continue to support those who need it most.
What about your other charitable initiatives?
Our work with Fare Share, The Felix Project, Thames21, The MSC and with other local charities near our packing site will continue in the same way it always has. The only change? We’ll have more power and momentum to progress change quicker and have more of an impact on all of these great causes. Think about how big our Coastal Cleans or Reverse Advent calendar will be!
How do you plan to use the funds from the Nestlé investment?
Our main goal at Mindful Chef is to always find new ways to improve the service for you, our customers. We will be investing in the kinds of things you tell us that you care about. This investment will allow us to hire more people in the team to ensure the highest customer care standards that we are known for. It allows improvements in technology to ensure that the millions of ingredients we process and pack every week arrive in ship shape and that the ordering system behind the scenes driving our revolutionary zero food waste model can continue to evolve as we scale.
We will also invest in marketing and advertising to spread the word about our healthy meals. Since day one we’ve had the mission of making healthy eating easy and we’re delighted that this will help us bring healthy eating to thousands of more people and help change lives for the better. We read the emails that come in on a weekly basis talking about the amazing effects of our meals on your health with such joy. Imagine how many people’s lives we will now be able to help transform for the better.
We’ll also continue to develop new ranges based on what you tell us you love; our smoothies, recipe boxes, soups, broths, and frozen meals are just the start!
Will you still be based in the UK?
Yes, we are going nowhere. We will operate as a standalone company, with the same management and fantastic team. Our head office will continue to be based in Wandsworth and our packing site in the Midlands. Though, right now you’ll probably be aware that the majority of the team are working from home safely due to Covid-19. You’ll be able to contact us just as easily as before.
If you have any questions that we haven’t answered here please email the team on [email protected]