Healthy vegan food from the vending machine: "The market is ready for it"

From operating room surgeons to students at the ROC: more and more people are opting for a healthy meal or snack. Anouk Snelders of Health Food Wall has noticed this in the increased interest in her smart refrigerators. She fills it with vegan food, but does not market it as such. “We are mainly concerned with quality.” Competition is now increasing. How does it sustain itself as a start-up?

In 2017, Anouk Snelders noticed that a healthy, quick snack was impossible to find at stations and airports. That's why she decided to put it on the market herself. With her Health Food Wall she offers an alternative to the fatty snack from the wall. Although Snelders prefers to see her company as an extension of company catering rather than as an alternative to the snack machine.

'Market ready for the protein transition'

Until mid-2022, Health Food Wall's offering consisted of approximately 80 percent vegan and 20 percent vegetarian products. “To make it a little more accessible.” But the range is now 100 percent plant-based. “When I started Health Food Wall, the market was not yet ready for the complete protein transition,” Snelders explains. “We were actually ready for it earlier, but we followed the market.”

From Schiphol to The Concertgebouw

The market has been ready for it since last year, says Snelders. “The adoption of alternative proteins has accelerated tremendously. It has been normalized.” That is why Snelders vending machines can now be found in various places: from hospitals to gyms and from Schiphol to the Concertgebouw. The offer varies per location, because Snelders monitors sales with data. This also results in different vending machine content within locations.

This applies, for example, to a hospital with vending machines in the operating rooms, in the emergency room, the outpatient clinic and the psychiatric department. “Each target group has a different need,” notes Snelders. “So one shelf might be full of banana bread and the other with meals. Depending on what is needed.”

Not vegan but just tasty and healthy

Consumer research shows that those who find the Health Food Wall are mainly flexitarians: people who give up meat occasionally. So nohardcorevegans. That is also not the target group that Snelders focuses on. She wants to reach “people who need a tasty product”. “We are mainly concerned with quality, taste and price. That we simply market a good product and offer good service. The fact that it is plant-based is secondary.”

As a brand, she finds the plant-based part important, because it makes a positive contribution to CO2 emissions, animal welfare and health. But: “We are not an activist party that says the whole world should only eat vegan.” She does hope that people will become more aware of what they eat and choose plant-based more often by lowering the threshold for a vegan choice. “We hope to appeal to a broad target group and make the vegan option more mainstream.”

Not the only one anymore

Health Food Wall is now no longer the only party that focuses on healthy, plant-based, ready-to-eat products that are available outside regular catering hours. “We certainly notice competition,” says Snelders. Yet competition helps rather than hinders. “The competition makes it easier to have a conversation, because a plant-based offering has been normalized in the market by the larger players.”

Now it sounds like everything goes (and went) smoothly for Snelders, but that is not the case. “As an entrepreneur you constantly have challenges.” For example, the first vending machine in Kinkerstraat closed four months after opening due to a burst water pipe at the upstairs neighbors. The water damage was extensive and recovery would take some time. That's why she decided not to reopen there. A vending machine in a shopping street was never her goal. She just needed it to prove her plan.

Entrepreneurial journey

“I actually set up Health Food Wall in a very lean way,” says Snelders. “With a small team. Step by step. Very carefully actually.” She raised money from friends and family.

When the company started to grow significantly in late 2021 and early 2022, she decided to join an acceleration program: Fastlane. In this way, she hopes to grow in a healthy, sustainable way. “If you, as a start-up, are moving towards the scale-up phase, there are so many crucial questions that you have to answer. These can actually all be a make it or break it moment.”

In the initial phase, Health Food Wall mainly worked on the basis of assumptions. “If we continue to do exactly this and continue to grow, we will get there. Without really taking a critical look with experts at how we are really doing.” That attitude did not seem useful to her in view of the growth the company is experiencing. “The impact we make matters more.”

Topics

During the Fastlane program, she focused on three themes with experts. In good Dutch: data and sales, brand identity and funding. As part of the first theme, she investigated with Gijs van Molengracht who the target group actually is and which locations work best. “So that we do not scale prematurely in an industry where we are actually not wanted at all.” With Peter de Boer she delved into the theme of brand identity. She will further develop this over the next five years. And the third theme was funding. “That has given us insight into how the funding market actually works.”

The biggest lesson she learned: focus. “There are so many things that require your attention in a day. If you don't have the right focus, it is more difficult to achieve the goals and ambitions.” Now that she has determined the ambitions for the next five years, she will work on them with “hyper focus”. She is convinced that she will achieve those goals.

“Sure, we'll get it. Regardless of the external factors. Because the focus is there, the dedication is there, the enthusiasm is there and the love is there. So then everything will be fine.” She will keep the details to herself for a while, but does say that she wants to set an example in the corporate catering industry. “Vending as an extension of gastronomy.” In the words of Snelders. In addition, Health Food Wall will be available abroad in five years. “And I keep that broad.”

Positive impact: whether you want it or not

The more Health Food Wall grows, the more people will come into contact with it. In the future, Snelders wants more interaction with customers. For example, she thinks about a reward system. “Just like saving points at the Coffee Company on the corner.”

Ultimately, she also wants to include people in the CO2 emissions they save by eating a plant-based product. Because: “Whether you want it or not; you are making a positive impact!”

Artikel created by: Change.Inc

Foto credits: Health Food Wall