Arthur Crawford and Joe Scott, co-founders of Meez, a new restaurant meal-kit delivery service, have known each other since intermediate school age. With backgrounds as a solicitor and in finance respectively, the pair don’t have deep roots in hospitality, but they do both have a long-held passion for good food.
“Food has been a central point of our friendship and we’ve had many good times revolving around eating and drinking. We also both have entrepreneurial streaks in us and saw Meez as the perfect opportunity to mix two of our passions,” explained Crawford.
“We started Meez out of a genuine desire to help restaurants connect with customers from all over the country.”
Although it was originally started as a lockdown business and one that allowed restaurants to continue to operate during the pandemic and nationwide lockdowns, it has since grown into something much bigger.
Crawford noted that restaurants provide such an amazing and unique experience, but unfortunately in many ways have a really challenging business model to execute. A restaurant’s customer base is entirely restricted by its geographical location, in conjunction their output is constrained by the number of seats on site. As is evident now, restaurants are faced with many negative externalities, such as high overheads and food prices, which existed pre-Covid, but even more so now.
“We felt these externalities seemed quite unnecessary and old-school considering the world we live in today, so we went about trying to fix this.”
Meez provides restaurants with the means to connect with and reach customers from all over the country, effectively giving the best chefs bigger tables.
“We also want to provide them with a viable, alternative revenue stream that continues into the future. We not only want to help restaurants sell meals through the Platform, but we also want to help promote their brand and reach on a national scale, and ultimately get more customers dining in at their restaurants.”
Gemmayze Street Mezza Menu
Customers in New Zealand are equally restricted in what they can and can’t eat based on where they live and how far they must travel to a restaurant. Crawford and Scott wanted to give customers a chance to experience food from New Zealand’s best and most unique restaurants and chefs without having to drive across town or jump on a plane.
“We also wanted to create a more meaningful at home dining experience for customers, something that is a step away from the generic takeaways. Meez isn’t intended to be ‘fast food’ – or something that one eats straight out of a container on the couch. We want customers to feel involved in the integrated cooking and dining experience.”
The end result means customers of Meez will plate something up that is reflective of what one would expect to receive if they were to eat in that restaurant. Meez is designed for those people who want to get out their nice plates, open a bottle of wine and light some candles with family and friends.
“We also want to give busy people who don’t have the time to spend hours in the kitchen prepping and cooking, an easy and stress-free way to plate up that is restaurant quality and guaranteed to be delicious.”
The pair created Meez as an alternative for people who love to entertain. Meez dinner kits are largely pre-prepared by the restaurants to a point where they are 90 percent complete. They arrive ready for the customer to heat, assemble, and serve at home in around 20 minutes.
Crawford explained that the ultimate vision with Meez is to create a collective of the country’s best restaurants and eateries. Somewhere people can go to order and know the food and experience is going to be amazing every time.
“This doesn’t mean we only want to work with fine dining establishments or top-rated restaurants, we want to partner with local favourites or hidden gems alike,” he said.
“Like Meez, a lot of the restaurants we work with are independent, owner operated, establishments. It’s been amazing to get to know the chefs/owners on a personal level and really understand the problems they have been facing over the last few years.”
Meez meal kits are in an awesome middle ground in terms of the product offering and there is nothing similar available to customers currently in the market. The meal kits are chilled and shipped to customers overnight in climate-controlled packaging. Shipping food chilled means there is little compromise to the integrity of the food (unlike some other meal delivery companies, who ship warm food such as Uber Eats, where food often arrives lukewarm and not in a very presentable state).
This is not only good for the customer, but also provides comfort to the restaurants, knowing the delivery process will not put their brand and reputation at risk. Customers can live track their deliveries, and the boxes stay cold for 48 hours, so even if a customer is at work when their delivery is made, they can collect it when they arrive home knowing the food is going to still fresh and great.
“The response to date has been really positive from customers and restaurants alike,” noted Crawford.
Culprit
“We want to partner with restaurants in the true sense of the word. One of our core values has been to make our restaurant partner’s lives as easy as possible. We do our best to streamline our operations and collaborate regularly with chefs and managers to see what’s working for them individually, and as a group. We work hard to make sure the process is seamless and fun for chefs and managers. The reason being want restaurants to focus on what they do best which is cook beautiful food.
“We’ve also had really positive feedback from customers. Meal kits of this nature are an entirely new concept for most New Zealander’s – but once people try it for the first time, from the feedback we have obtained thus far, it seems to be game changing for them. It’s always exciting when we hear positive feedback from customers or when we see someone who has ordered for the first time order several times again, trying a new restaurant every time.”
Consumer habits are definitely changing, with convenience being a big driving factor. COVID-19 has been a big catalyst for such changes. The way people want to experience food and drink is no different. People are becoming more and more time poor, are working long hours, remotely and have young children, etc. Getting out to the restaurant isn’t always possible – which is where Meez comes in.
“Of course, there will always be a want and need for in-restaurant experiences, which is something we fully support. But as consumer habits are changing, we think it’s important for restaurants to diversify their offering to accommodate,” concluded Crawford.
“Meal kits of this nature are an entirely new concept for most New Zealanders, but we think they are going to be commonplace in New Zealand in the next few years.”
Crawford and Scott love chatting to all restaurants and can be reached at info@meez.co.nz
