Eating healthy is imperative but at times can be a lot harder than it looks.
Work demands, busy lifestyles and stress mean most people don’t often have the time to prepare healthy meals. As a result, many opt for unhealthy takeaway meals convenience.
Servd Fresh is a Johannesburg-based catering company that originally started as a healthy meal home and office delivery service catering for people looking to lose weight or are simply looking to lead a healthier lifestyle.
Interested customers subscribe to a meal plan best suited to them on the website, thereafter they start receiving meal deliveries.
It was founded by Robert Hope (36) and Bridget Van As (41) in 2009.
This year the duo are expanding the concept to a brand new business model. They have launched vending machines which will be located in office buildings, offering the same healthy offerings as their delivery service – a first for South Africa.
The Van As shares the journey behind Servd Fresh.
Co-founder, Bridget Van As.
I have always had a keen interest in health, however obtaining healthy meals seemed to be quite challenging. Numerous fast food chains are jumping up all over the place, but none of them with really healthy low calorie meal options.
“Be prepared for sleepless nights and lots of
hard work 24/7″
We hope that long term people will start to change their eating habits and start making healthier meal choices as a result of this convenience.
We started as a two-man band with no real financial backing. It was a long hard struggle to get a business such as this off the ground. It was one of the first diet delivery services in the country. Over the past five years, it has been rough, however we are extremely proud of all the obstacles and challenges that we have overcome.
Servd Fresh was self-funded. We started in a home kitchen with nothing and used the profits to re-invest back into our business. We have continued to do this over the past five years.
In the next two years, we hope to successfully expand our vending concept and have at least 100 machines out there. We have also extended our service to healthy corporate catering, which is also an area we are hoping to be established in the next year or two.
My advice to aspiring entrepreneurs is to be prepared for sleepless nights and lots of hard work 24/7. Never give up, stay motivated and keep going. It is tough but well worth it in the end.
When we first started, we weren’t prepared for the amount of work, hours and stress involved. Many people think working for yourself is easy – it really isn’t. I think if I was more prepared and knew what I was getting myself into, I would have handled many things very differently instead of the shotgun approach that I hold so dear.
However, in hindsight, all the challenges we were faced with were also blessings in disguise. Had we not endured so many challenges we would not have learnt what have to date, or as solutions-driven and determined to make things work. I also probably would have saved up money first.