Would You Drive A 3D Printed Delivery Van?
Kroger-Albertsons increase divestiture, office workers crave catering, how Serve got a starring role
Can you believe it’s Monday again?! Start your week off right with a funky new delivery van, plans for a novel (delivery optimized?) mega grocer, data on office catering, plus some insights into how Serve Robotics snagged its hit Netflix roles.
This week’s edition is brought to you by ChowNow
Today:
Helixx Raises Cash for 3D Printed Delivery Vans
Kroger-Albertsons Merger May Birth New Mega Market
Chart Time | Catering To Officer Workers’ Tastes
Serve CMO Talks Starring Role for Saymo
VEHICLES | Helixx Wants to 3D Print Your Delivery Van
British startup Helixx just revealed its plans for a 3D printed delivery van, unveiling its eye-catching design at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. While the prototype cost just $6,000 to build using fourteen consumer-grade printers, the company has bigger ambitions: it hopes to franchise a “factory in a box” to fleet operators that want to be able to create their own customized vehicles, with Helixx working behind the scenes for about $80/mo on things like software and maintenance. While the idea of “McDonald’s meets EVs” may sound like a long shot, investors are taking notice, with the company having just kicked off fundraising for its £16 million ($20.8M) Series A.
The Big Picture: While the overall business is packed full of novel ideas, many of these individual concepts have been tried before. To keep costs and regulatory requirements low, the vehicle is technically classified as a L7E Heavy Quadricycle, topping out at 55 MPH, similar to a Renault Twizy. Battery costs are kept to a minimum through the use of a swapping and renting system, poached from Taiwan’s Gogoro. And while the production models won’t be fully 3D printed, the idea of using localized microfactories was previously tried (without success…) at Arrival, a no longer extant electric van startup where Helixx CEO Steve Pegg once worked.
PARTNER | Switch to ChowNow and Save Big
Take orders all across the web, including your site, the ChowNow app, Google, Yelp, and 20+ popular sites. Integrate with your POS so every order runs smoothly, and take on more business with less effort. Launch your own branded apps and custom marketing campaigns to boost customer loyalty and reorders. Get it all with ChowNow, while averaging $16K a year in commissions savings.
Try it now and get one month free.
GROCERY | Is A New Major Supermarket Emerging?
Kroger and Albertsons are pressing ahead with their $24.6B merger; in an attempt to placate the FTC, they’ve upped the number of stores they’d divest to 579. While brands would change hands all over the country, certain states would see the biggest shakeup, with 124 stores being sold in Washington, 101 in Arizona, 91 in Colorado, 63 in California and 62 in Oregon. This is the second time the parties have increased the divestiture size in the face of FTC and union opposition, after adding 166 store to the list in late April.
The Big Picture: The counterparty to this deal is C&S Wholesale Grocers. While it’s not a household name, it’s the eighth largest privately held company in the country, with $33.7 billion a year in revenue coming largely from its work as a wholesale supplier to other grocers, as well as stores it operates under the Piggly Wiggly banner. Glomming on these new locations would make it one of the 20 largest supermarket operators in the country, giving it a shot of going head-to-head with other retailers in its weight class like Publix, H-E-B and Trader Joe’s. C&S also takes on the QFC, Mariano’s, Carrs and Haggen brand names, and gets to license the Albertsons name in CA / WY, and Safeway in AZ / CO. While the divestiture plan claims to keep all store open and 100% of frontline associates employed, grocery mega-mergers plus divestitures have a spotty track record, including Albertson’s earlier merger with Safeway, where a 146 store sell off torpedoed the acquiring company, partially due to shoppers’ unfamiliarity with the Haggen brand.
But, grocery shopping habits have changed a lot in the past decade, with consumer loyalty down in the face of higher prices. More importantly, for delivery users, does it really matter how familiar one is with the brand that’s providing edible commodities, as long as its nearby and price competitive? With C&S seemingly not yet offering an in-house delivery option of its own, expect the fight for these unmoored shoppers to be intense.
CHART TIME | The Benefits of Corporate Meal Programs
DoorDash has released new research touting the benefits of employee meal benefits, staking its claim in the hot corporate catering space, where it goes head to head with the likes of Zerocater and ezCater.
INTERVIEW | How Serve Landed Its Delivery Bots A Starring Role
Serve Robotics has been on a roll lately, with the PDD stalwart recently expanding its service to LA’s hyper-dense Koreatown and signing a new equipment deal with Lidar supplier Ouster as it builds out its fleet. But to the casual observer, Serve’s biggest accomplishment as of late hasn’t been on the streets, it’s been on screen: the company’s robots have had prominent roles in hit TV shows and films like John Mulaney Presents: Everybody’s in LA and Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F. Check out the “actor’s” burgeoning credits list on IMDB.
To learn how these partnerships came together, and what sort of impact they’re having on the company’s growth, we caught up with Aduke Thelwell, Serve’s Head of Communications. (Originally published at Ottomate.)
Ottomate News: Set the stage for us… how did the Serve Robotics and John Mulaney come about?
Aduke Thelwell: The Mulaney team was creating a show about the city of Los Angeles and delivery robots are now part of daily life in the city. They approached us about collaborating to create a delivery robot character for the show. We were excited to take part and help bring John Mulaney’s vision to life with the help of cute robots.
From start to finish, how long did the collaboration take? How involved did the Serve team get to be in the final concept?
We were approached several months in advance as the show was being developed. Thankfully the creative heavy-lifting about the robot’s story was all on John’s team, so the bulk of our involvement came in the weeks leading up to the taping, such as rehearsing scenes, enabling robot functionality on set, and overall making Saymo comfortable in his new acting career.
Who picked the name “Saymo”? It kind of reminds us of a… different… brand of self driving vehicles.
The show producers picked the name, which proved quite popular with the audience.
Has Serve’s newfound fame translated into any impact from a business perspective? More merchant inquiries? More consumer uptake?
We have certainly noticed more public awareness about our work and the broader domain of food delivery robotics.
Serve recently listed on the Nasdaq, raising some fresh funds in the process. Can you speak at all to how the company plans to deploy that new capital? What does the next year look like for Serve?
A Few Good Links
Mobile apps, paired with fast service, drive fast food brand satisfaction. Meet Mod Pizza’s new owner. FTC targets franchisor junk fees. FTC may sue pharmacy benefit managers, including CVS, as they steer consumers towards higher priced options. Mall owners add EV chargers. TruckSmarter raises $50-100M debt facility. Tata Starbucks (India) gains new head of marketing and product. Deliveroo UAE launches Respect Pledge. Urban Crew launches task-based fleet optimizer. Waymo nabs tire slasher. Archer Aviation and Southwest Airlines team up on air taxis. Rideshare drivers react to Uber lowering rates. Meet the woman who operated a ring of gig work fraudsters.
Got a tip, feedback, or just want to say hi? Reply back to this email.
— Brought to you by the Curbivore Crew.