Entrepreneur Glenda Anfinsen has developed a scalable business model that challenges roadside eateries and fast food: hot, healthy meals, delivered in under a minute from a vending machine. After five years of development and validation of the concept, the first grabEAT vending machine is now ready at the Kvåle rest area in Voss.
Glenda currently lives in Bergen and has a background as an enterprising businesswoman from the Philippines.
– I am a trained interior architect and have run two companies in the Philippines in real estate and design. I have always had an entrepreneur in my heart, and have long seen the need for something like grabEAT here in Norway, she tells Avisa Hordaland .
An idea born in a loading queue
Glenda got the idea five years ago, when she was sitting in a car with hungry children in the back seat, with no access to anything other than classic road rage.
“I was standing in a loading line with hungry kids in the back seat, and there was nowhere to get proper food. Often there are only fast food places like McDonald's and Burger King along the road. grabEAT is an alternative for people on the go who want healthy and nutritious food,” she says.
Smart, simple and scalable business model
grabEAT is built on an asset-light model: Healthy, ready-made meals are produced by external kitchen partners and distributed to the company's own vending machines, placed in strategic locations with high traffic and low operating costs, such as rest areas, office buildings, healthcare institutions and central hubs.
The meals are free of additives, but still have a long shelf life as they are frozen in the machine.
Customers select their meal on a digital screen and have it served hot in under a minute. All dishes cost 129 kroner, and the menu is updated weekly.
– We focus on mobility and ease of operation, not large real estate investments or a menu with a short shelf life, says entrepreneur Glenda Anfinsen.
The result is a business model that is both robust and scalable, and that gives grabEAT a good starting point to meet the needs of a demanding convenience market.
Ambitions for further growth
The next step is to establish vending machines at major ferry terminals, hospitals and selected locations in Voss and Bergen. The company is now seeking partners and investors to realize a national rollout, with opportunities for international expansion in the long term.
Aggrator supports entrepreneurs who develop new solutions within food, agricultural and environmental technology. Are you a start-up with ambitions in these areas? Get in touch at contact@ aggrator .com.
Photos in the article were taken by Stine Carlsen for Avisa Hordaland.