What does a catering company do with overstock produce?
Simply Lunch is an award-winning lunch program centered around organic food and eco-conscious cooking. The company delivers lunches to office buildings and film locations throughout the Los Angeles metropolitan area.
Project Overview
Market research
Developed web page
Managed social media channels
Wrote and sent monthly email blasts with an average open rate of 26%
Created successful client retention program
Worked with a tight quarterly advertising budget
Challenge
Most catering companies do the majority of their business during the weekends. Typically, food is prepped Thursday and Friday for the events scheduled on Saturday and Sunday. But come Monday morning, what does a catering company do with its overstocked produce and meat? Each week, Eco Caters was losing revenue as a result of food expiring.
Another challenge was that Eco Caters’ clientele consisted mainly of catering weddings. Happily married couples don’t often need repeat service from a catering company…
The solution to both of these challenges? Creating a weekly lunch program for nearby office buildings. It provides a vehicle to sell surplus produce, and the business model nurtures built-in repeating customers.
Results
The catering company recouped 80% of its previously lost revenue immediately at launch. After its first year, Simply Lunch became a sixth of the business’s annual revenue. Additionally, the program turned weekend kitchen staff into full-time employees.
"Our office loves Simply Lunch! Everyone looks forward to the moment when your chef walks in to set up our lunch buffet. You make us all enjoy coming to work." - Riot Games
Web Copy Sample
We could rave about how our lunch delivery program uses certified organic ingredients, sustainable seafood, and that our chef is on a first-name basis with our ranchers; that our menu strikes a delicious balance between naughty and nutritious; everything is homemade and baked daily; that we designed an online ordering app to make it convenient for any office to place orders, and that we pride ourselves on being punctual, but... then it wouldn’t be simple, would it?
Simply Lunch: the simplest way to order lunch
