Innovation
We are passionate about new ideas and technologies, constantly pushing the boundaries through our partners and projects. We have completed two innovation projects to transform local food production and supply, especially in the post-COVID era. Some of our areas of expertise include:
-
Dark and shared kitchen spaces: during the FEED and FEED: HUB & SPOKE projects, we established the first shared kitchen space in Oxford, initially looking at residential and, finally, professional kitchens. We studied the business and scalability models for these in partnership with local companies.
-
Co-working spaces: we converted underused spaces into co-working spaces to enable more growth and flexible working during the COVID era.
-
App development and Integrations: we created our own FEED app (iOS and Android|) and online store for direct-to-consumer delivery of food, drink and essentials, integrating with multiple delivery partners, aggregators and payment methods.
-
Green Last-mile Delivery: we integrated with multiple delivery companies, including having our own fleet of EVs and e-bikes. We worked with Deliveroo, UberEats, JustEat, Stuart and Pedal & Post to establish the best way to deliver fresh food and essentials.
-
Vertical Farming: We are passionate about reducing the food miles and enable fresher and healthier (no antibiotics or pesticides) vegetables. We established the first-ever vertical micro-farming as part of a dark kitchen.
-
Future Mobility solutions: we have experimented with food and essential delivery with Drones and Robot dogs, doing public trials and become international leaders in understanding the practical limitations and business cases.
-
Consolidated Delivery: We have created our own proprietary modular system to enable consolidated asynchronous delivery of food, drinks and essentials, drastically decreasing the costs and carbon footprint.
Please see the tiles below for more information on some of our work, and please do not hesitate to get in touch if you would like to discuss.
FEED (Food & Essentials E-Delivery) is using EVs and collaborates with e-cargo bikes for its operations in Oxford
During the first lockdown, in Summer 2020, FEED trialled food and essentials delivery by drones for social distancing. The project was off to a flying start.
In a UK first, FEED is trialling innovative last mile delivery for food and essentials using robot dogs who can cope with both urban and rural routes.
We have partnered with WeGrow to trial the first vertical farming in Oxford. Non-GMO plants grow under optimal lighting and watering conditions under atmospheric controls.