Formerly a consultant for European institutions, David Garlot is an entrepreneur at heart. With Talina Sterneberg, in charge of Food development and Michel Vanavermaete, in charge of IT development, they founded Crowd Cooks. The concept: a subscription of small meals already prepared delivered to families every week for their entire week. Not tackling an easy sector, with large margins and a clear path, the concept was built around 2 pillars: the outsourcing of logistics and cooking. The core business of the Crowd Cooks team remains and will remain to be as close as possible to its customer and to ensure that recipes are 100% adopted by young and old alike.We met David Garlot, their CEO, to find out how they experienced and are experiencing the complete outsourcing of their logistics every week.
The customers Crowd Cooks have access to a meal subscription for their week. These meals are cooked and put directly into the cold room by our catering partner The Dark Kitchen. They are then delivered via our logistics partner Shippr. Very close to our customers and their problems because we are also parents, we put our heart into developing new healthy and varied recipes every week to delight the whole family.
Creating recipes and understanding family and children! It is our core business and it is fundamental to our business. Understanding the family and children is the foundation of everything. Between those who only want to eat burgers or pasta, how can you succeed in getting them to eat vegetables? How can the mother of the family revive her whole family by taking all tastes into account? The quality of cooked meals is therefore essential.
In the beginning, we did everything by ourselves. We were in a shared kitchen and took care of logistics and deliveries. We took coolers from Picard and we found a tool to do our online routing. At the beginning, we had 15 people to deliver, so we did the deliveries ourselves on Sundays. Luckily on Sunday, traffic was still fine, but we very quickly realised the unexpected: the customer is not at home, you have to warn them well in advance... All communication and preparation are essential, but very time-consuming. Doing everything in-house really allowed us to understand how all this worked. But very quickly, we realised that we could never develop our business if we maintained the management of all activities.The food sector is complex, there are small volumes and customers have a high degree of demand for small margins. So we looked for two partners; one in production and one in delivery.
I thought it was 4 euros, because Amazon makes us believe that not everything is expensive. The problem is that we think that because Amazon has put a standard as easy and free. But it's Amazon. A lot of people underestimate the time that logistics takes. It's a complex job.”
From the start, we were certain that it was never going to be an Uber Eats process in One-to-one. We have always done delivery rounds to be effective in optimisation. I thought we could deliver without it being too expensive. I thought it was 4 euros, because Amazon makes us believe that not everything is expensive. The problem is that we think that because Amazon has set a standard. But it's Amazon. A lot of people underestimate the time that logistics takes. It's a complex job. What's more, we were doing a business that focused on fresh produce. In addition to the logistical difficulties associated with tour management, we have The cold chain to be respected. This cold chain was a problem because we did not have a refrigerated vehicle and it was extremely expensive. We also have A schedule constraint to be respected: delivery within 30 minutes. Our customers are very organised by nature. So they don't want to spend their Sunday or Monday waiting for delivery. That is why they have a window of 4 hours, but we tell them that they will be delivered at 16:00, more or less 30 minutes. Accuracy in terms of the delivery time and compliance with it are therefore essential.
I did some research on the internet by typing “delivery company Brussels” and I came across results other than Shippr at the start. I find some of them, I contact them and I go to meet them and then I am surprised: I realise that the organisation is archaic. Everything was done on papers, nothing was online. In summary, these companies were just going to make delivery people available, but You had to keep doing everything yourself. I was ready to do it, because it was better if they were delivery people than me, but you still had to manage everything and that was not the solution I was looking for. However, I went further and was surprised that no company did that. All of a sudden, I come across Shippr. And then, right away, it stuck, because it was modern. I said to myself “Wow that's great”. Shippr answered everything I was looking for. And the collaboration happened in a second.
It happened naturally and it was super simple. I have always been passionate about logistics. I always found it extraordinary because I love optimisation and processes so the Shippr way of doing things spoke to me strongly. In addition, the agreement went well directly with the team. Shippr helped me with the cold chain problem. We went from Picard refrigerated boxes to a professional refrigerated transport. We changed our procedures and we started to have a real cold chain process. There were points that I had not seen, because I did not know that there was a solution that existed and at the moment our system was working. But outsourcing allowed us to see a real “better” thanks to the support of the Shippr team.At the level Routing of delivery routes, we had to go from “I'll take care of it” to “I'll leave it to Shippr”. It was a bit more difficult because we already had our own process with software that worked well. And I wanted the process to be really perfect so to do that, I needed to be involved. But Shippr makes it a point of honour that the customer does not intervene. So it required some adjustments and little by little it was resolved. At last we stayed in charge of communication on Sundays between our customers and us. We didn't want to outsource that because it was really important for us. But that meant sacrificing our weekends. Today, that is no longer the case. We had more and more customers and it was becoming too difficult to manage. To avoid burn-outs within our teams, we had to outsource this.
From a simple Excel sheet, Shippr routes us with the 7 delivery people on Sunday and Monday. Everything is packed at our caterer, put into a cold room and delivered. It's hyper-planned and organised. We do 5-hour rounds and we are able to deliver all our customers within +- 30 minutes, even the last one. And that has been the case since the beginning!
Regarding cold chain management, a real process has been set up thanks to Shippr. We went from Picard fridge boxes to refrigerated vehicles. The health safety of these ultra-fragile goods is respected during each delivery tour. Shippr is a procedural freak and logistics freak, it's mandatory. It's been a great strength. Have a modern, young, intelligent, efficient partner. It's a chance. Thanks to outsourcing, we have drastically increased the time allocated to our core business. The time previously spent preparing, managing, tracking, and communicating deliveries is now time that we can put to good use for our customers. We also have increased our number of customers and therefore our delivery rounds. Shippr's flexibility makes it possible to manage spikes in activity every week. If one more delivery person is needed, Shippr takes care of that. If there is a transfer of delivery schedules from one day to another, as in times of health crisis with people working from home, This change in consumer habits has no impact on our logistics management. And that's thanks to the Shippr solution. It makes management so much easier. The schedules are always respected, and that's been the case since Crowd Cooks started. We survey our customers every week and today, on average, we We are 4.9 stars 5 for delivery. And it's been like that from the start. We have an almost perfect delivery service where the customer is extremely happy. We continue to make delivery rounds for more sustainable logistics. Shippr optimises our delivery routes thanks to their routing software and allows us to contribute to putting fewer vehicles on the road as well as reducing fuel. Everyone wants to be delivered by bike today, but delivering by bike from multiple destinations is still expensive delivery costs or still not feasible for longer distances. On the other hand, we have been doing rounds in appropriate vehicles since the beginning and that is ecological. The trips are profitable.
“If we have a peak, it doesn't change the process. Shippr is increasing the number of delivery people and I didn't have to do anything. Without this outsourcing, I would have had to find the delivery people by myself, brief them and it is becoming so difficult that you can't even sign your customer anymore.”
Delivery represents 50% of our business and is an essential part of our success. Delivery people are the last point of contact with our customers. Therefore, the quality of service plays a critical role in customer satisfaction. At the beginning, we could ensure deliveries with 4 couriers. Now, we need 5 delivery people for 4 hours on Sunday and 5 delivery people for 4 hours on Monday. Having 10 delivery people available who are available cannot be internalised. Obviously, the hourly cost is higher than an in-house delivery person, but I have no administration or management to do. In addition, as soon as a courier is missing, it is a real disaster to manage internally and it undermines your entire business. With Shippr, we have dedicated, briefed and involved deliverers. And if a delivery person is absent, he is immediately replaced. Now, I don't communicate with them at all because if a customer has a problem with a delivery person or a delivery, Shippr manages it. We survey our customers every week and on average, We are 4.9 stars 5 for delivery. And it's been like that from the start. We have an almost perfect delivery service that the customer is very happy with. We have always been extremely close to our customers and outsourcing logistics allows us to maintain this satisfaction. It is a subcontracting that makes a lot of strategic sense in the medium to long term.
We have significant food safety challenges. And if, in addition to the complexity of your business, you have problems with delivery people, that's it. Whereas with Shippr, an absent delivery person is directly replaced. And I didn't even have to think about it. I think that if you have not outsourced your logistics, then now is the beginning of the accumulation of problems. You can always fix a big problem, but two is already too much.
Do not wait any longer to discover their superb range of cooked meal box. Interested in knowing what Shippr can do to make your logistics easier? Do not hesitate to make an appointment with one of our business experts.A big thank you to David Garlot for sharing the Crowd Cooks experience with Shippr!
