Meal Innovations
Online
Packaging and Sealing
A new division, selling through online menus, started in late 2005. Sales and Marketing Manager Allan Johnson travels around the country promoting Meal Innovations products. After chatting with various people he decided that motel catering could be a new market and the company looked into this. The result was DINZ (Dining in New Zealand) meals. These include soups, salads, mains and desserts but also offer ‘serve over’ meal components. These are bags of food which the customer can put together to make a meal. There are base meals, such as macaroni and savoury potato, curries, sauces, gravies, cooked rice and pasta.
These are available for customers to purchase from the online order form. This new concept is aimed at motels and pubs which need to provide meals for customers but don’t run a restaurant. Orders are faxed in and the meals delivered to the motel’s premises.
At this stage the DINZ meals haven’t taken off as expected. In Ana’s opinion, the idea is good as are the menus, but possibly the timing for this innovation just wasn’t quite right and another time of year might prove more popular. Meal Innovations is keeping this side of the business going and hopes it will pick up once the reputation for good meals is established.
