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Pikt is “here to make Organic Fresh Fruit and Vegetables affordable to the majority, not minority”. But with a box of fresh produce delivered to your door, how do you ensure no food is wasted? Express.co.uk spoke to the Founder and Chief Executive of Pikt, Matt Godfroy about the brand, why it is different to other food box companies and his advice for ensuring all produce is enjoyed.
According to businesswaste.co.uk, over a third of all food produced globally goes to waste.
As for the UK, around 9.5million tonnes of food waste is thrown away in a single year – even though 8.4million people in the UK are in food poverty.That equates to billions of pound wasted each year when food is disposed of unnecessarily.
So how can households reduce the amount of food they throw away and what ideas does Pikt have to use your fruit and veg delivery?
“We smoothie [our fruit and veg],” Matt revealed. “At home my wife Sam and myself every morning, produce we have left over, we make into a fresh smoothie.
“It’s got all sorts from spinach, pineapple, mango, kiwi, apples, pears and passionfruit in it.
“Nothing needs to go to waste, just stick it in a blender, there is a meal to have and what better than a fresh produce, quick smoothie drink?”
As for meals, he said: “Food doesn’t need to be wasted as long as you plan meals.
“I think people need to understand that when they are preparing their evening meal, think about what they are going to have for lunch the next day and if there is a point where you’re going to have a little bit too much [dinner], make yourself lunch for the next day.
“Save yourself, £5, £6 you would spend and you’ll really start to realise and plan your food and not buy in big supermarket packs, you’re saving a lot of money.”
What is Pikt and how does it work?
“I’ve been in fresh produce for the last 25 years and 20 of those years I’ve specialised in organics,” Matt explained.
“I was invited to a large, well known retail in 2017 to present about packaging innovation, and I explained there are [packaging] alternatives which can move towards being plastic free.
“I was pretty much laughed at, it was impossible, couldn’t be done, it’s not what consumers wanted and I’ve misread it.
“I left the retailer meeting thinking ‘you missed the point, you don’t understand what people are starting to feel and where society is looking. You’re pointing in the wrong direction’.
“I came back, spoke to my team and said ‘We’ve got to do something ourselves because if they’re not going to do it, no one’s going to’. So we went to a festival in 2018 and created this brand for the weekend,” he continued.
This is where he asked people what they wanted from organic produce and “from that, we understood what people wanted from organics and that’s when words like sustainability, ethical, transparency and honest trading [came about]”.
“That got me to a point where I starting thinking ‘We’ve got to build something here because retailers aren’t address it’. The want is there for it, so how do we do it?” And that is how Pikt was born.
As for how it works, their slogan “You choose, we deliver” means the customer chooses what fruit and vegetable product they like by either building your own box or selecting a ready made box.
Matt explained “there is the ability to remove, swap or add items and customers can try a one-off purchase”.
“There is no subscription and once the box has been chosen and checked out, the Pikt team hand-pack every portion before delivering.
“It’s super simple because it’s next day delivery, seven days a week, nationwide,” he continued. “We chose DPD as our courier because they are carbon neutral.”
What’s included in Pikt’s boxes?
Matt explained: “Everything that goes in our boxes is portion control – two lemons, two limes, two kiwis.
“I’m not interested in putting in 600 grams of pears – well is that a big pear or a small pear? How many pears am I going to get? I want to plan my meals for the week.
“All that does is generate food waste – again, another one of the reasons why we’ve got such bad carbon emissions because of food waste.
“So we make it really simple, everything is in a portion control and a portion size you can related to as someone who consumes it.
“Pikt is designed to be friendly from the perspective of buying it not friendly from the perspective of the person trying to sell it,” he continued.
“With Pikt, we’ve got a Homely Box, Freshest Box and Fruitly Box, designed for different usages.
“90 odd percent of our customers choose the Build Your Own Box, you go in, pick and choose what you want in the most simplest way, sign in, get a box delivered to you with no subscriptions, no ties, no fees, that’s it.
“[It’s] super simple from going and placing and order, you’ll get through that entire checkout process in less than five minutes,” Matt said.
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A post shared by PiktFresh (@piktfresh)
What makes Pikt different?
“The big thing about us – we are B Corp certified and soil association certified,” Matt revealed.
“But it wasn’t enough for me, because of that meeting I had in 2017 and that frustration and disappointment, I launched Pikt to be the only – still to this day – plastic-free box in the UK.
“It really upsets me greatly, there are solutions out there but people aren’t adopting them.
“We’re the only fresh produce company in the UK who supplies retailers and operates our own bolt scheme which is B Corp certified.”
Check out Pikt’s website here and Pikt’s Instagram account here.
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