Following the popularity of healthy food delivery in the central business district area in Singapore, here’s one that is slightly different – a healthy salad delivery platform – and it has a great story behind it too.
Originally launched in June 2014, Spinacas is an online salad delivery portal which allows you to choose which salad you want and get them delivered to you. Here’s a quick look at the website before we move on to the story behind it:
From former architect to delivering healthy salads
Spinacas is started by both Phyllis Chua and Ng Wei Lieh. Helming from an architect background, for Phyllis Chua, the idea came about when she was on her 2 months sabbatical in Spain, where she discovered healthy good food as a way of life. At Spain, she was exposed to a variety of fresh whole produce and readily available meats used in the salads, she attempted to recreate the meal experiences back in Singapore but without success.
“Salads that were nutritious and hearty just didn’t exist. Most of them were too protein-light and carb-heavy, and I would always be hungry by 3pm,’ she remarked.
It was then that the health and fitness fanatic began creating her own salads, always adding more meat cooked in flavour-packed mixes. She packed some for friends to try and before she knew it, she was making deliveries around town on her red Vespa scooter, and Spinacas, Hearty Salads Delivered, was born.
Spinacas has been catering to orders from corporates and other ad hoc events, on top of the normal orders that come through their website. To build more presence, Spinacas also set up booths at events with high human traffic flow, such as the recently concluded Night Festival.
One year after she started, Spinacas is generating enough revenue, and is currently serving customers primarily in the central business district area.
Leaving No One Out
Spinacas currently features 3 categories of salads but their specialty meats cooked in-house remain the focus for the team. All the salads come with a minimum of 100g of meat. The menu is also deliberately kept simple so customers can just select their meat preference and all the toppings are pre-decided.
For vegetarians, there’s also an option where you can choose the Sesame Tofu Patties as the “meat” choice of your salad. Ingredients are sourced daily from local vegetable and meat suppliers to assure quality and freshness.
Orders have to be placed at least a day ahead though it is recommended to order 48 hours in advance to avoid filled slots. The minimum order is $30 and delivery charges are $4 or $6 depending on the distance and district.
Using Tech To Spice Things Up
To Phyllis, everything is on the line – so everything has to be done right. Spinacas – derived from the Spanish name for spinach – believes in making the order to delivery process as simple and convenient for their customers as possible.
For the website orders, customers first choose their salads and size, and then proceed to select their delivery date and time. Spinaca adopts the normal e-commerce standards such as secure online payment via PayPal, and it also offers electronic gift cards, a nifty feature which you don’t see that many platforms leveraging on nowadays. There is also a blog which shares articles on how to enjoy your salads.
According to Spinacas, while most of the deliveries are made during lunch hours to offices, there has been an increase in dinner deliveries to homes as well.
With their delivery reach now extending to Bedok and increase in events and corporate catering, cofounder Phyllis hopes to build a fleet of red Vespas in time to continue her island-wide salad delivery domination.
So the next time you see the red Vespas scooting around, it is most probably delivering a Spinacas salad to someone around the island.
