Finding wealth in health

Dubai - The company delivers a curated box of fresh fruit directly to your home or office

Imagine a plate full of clean and well curated fruits, appealing to your eyes and taste buds too, simple? Well, Marie-Christine Luijckx, managing partner, Fruitful Day, a Dutch national, exactly does that and has expanded her network in the UAE with resounding success.
The former banker diversified from her glorious career to start her own venture a year ago.
"Myself and three partners started working on the concept of Fruitful Day in January of 2015 and began delivering fruit just after Ramadan that year. The concept evolved out of our personal experiences of working long hours in corporate jobs with very few healthy choices leading to an unhealthy diet and loss in productivity in the workplace," said Luijckx.
The entrepreneur dons many hats being a mother of two and now handling the current business, which is scaling new heights everyday.
"We felt that, for companies and workplaces, it is important for employers to value their relationships with their employees and to show them that they care and are invested in their health and the quality of their lives. After all, health is wealth. Helping employees to make small choices towards a healthy lifestyle has a material impact on staff engagement, morale, satisfaction and motivation," adds the former banker.
The firm says that a healthy diet of fruits and vegetables also helps protect against a variety of diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, stroke and cancer. The company delivers a curated box of fresh fruit directly to your home or office.
"We saw an opportunity to help people make the right choices about fruit when time is limited and cut down on time needed to research fruit; time needed to source and select fruit - particularly, fruit in-region and in-season; time needed to actually go out and buy the produce and time needed to wash and prepare fruit."
Luijckx came to Dubai over 10 years ago and began her career in banking at Deutsche Bank. She then moved to Barclays where she spent more than five years focusing on private banking and business development, which gave her the foundation to launch a business in early 2015.
What really surprises consumers that we speak to is the abundance of incredible, tasty fruit that exists nearby in the region and the surrounding area, according to Fruitful Day.
Supermarkets are often sourcing fruit from North America and Europe when fresher, tastier and more affordable options are available in the region and the surrounding areas.
"This has nothing to do with quality and everything to do with supply chain management - consumers are invited to believe that they are getting better fruit. Making sustainable choices means thinking about where fruit is coming from, whether something is optimally in season or not and trying to balance various, sometimes competing factors to ensure that our customers are getting the tastiest, freshest, seasonal fruit, sourced sustainably, which means wherever possible from the region and surrounding areas," said Luijckx.
Women empowerment
Dubai and UAE are global and regional leaders in advancing and advocating for women to be represented in the workplace. His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, has taken every opportunity to support and celebrate the contribution of women to the growth of the UAE and under his leadership, women have felt motivated and empowered to take leading roles in business and the public sector, opines Luijckx.
"You only need to look around to see there is a thriving SME community in Dubai and that is testament to the platform that the leadership here has created for entrepreneurs - local and expats alike. There is a recognition here that small businesses and start-ups have a role to play in job creation and economic growth.
"As women we have a responsibility to support each other and look for those SMEs that are women led or women managed and do what we can to help them succeed including in how we use our spending power."
- sandhya@khaleejtimes.com