Winnowing out waste from food

Dubai - Company provides technology to cut waste in half and boost kitchen profits in just a few clicks

Ever wondered how much food waste costs the global hospitality industry? More than $100 billion annually. Kitchens can waste up to 20 per cent of food purchased, often equivalent to their total net profits.
"This is because chefs often lack the necessary tools to accurately measure and manage waste. What gets measured gets managed, and by using data intelligently kitchens can be made more efficient," said Marc Zornes, co-founder and chief executive officer of Winnow, a London-based startup whose technology promises to halve food waste in commercial kitchens.
Kitchens using the Winnow system know exactly what they're putting in their bins. The kitchen team uses a tablet to identify what they're throwing away. An electronic scale records the weight and sends a message to the user, giving the cost of the food they've put in the bin.
The meter is connected to cloud software which records and analyses the day's waste. This gives chefs the information necessary to drive improvements in their production processes to cut food waste in half, saving money and reducing their environmental footprint.
Zornes founded Winnow because he saw a massive opportunity in solving the problem of food waste.
"While at McKinsey, I co-authored a research paper on resource productivity. I was struck by the food waste statistics: one-third of all food is wasted from farm to fork. At that time there was hardly anyone working on it. So I decided to leave McKinsey and set up Winnow," he said.
Zornes said food waste is a huge and costly problem in the UAE. The country wastes around three million tonnes of food every year. This costs the economy an estimated $4 billion.
"Food waste presents a key challenge to the country's rapidly growing hotel and catering sector. There is an enormous savings potential for the industry in addressing the issue. We are already working with several hotels, universities and hospitals in the region and these sites are showing significant reductions in waste," said Zornes.
Winnow recently signed a memorandum of understanding with Dubai Municipality. It aims to encourage the use of technology to reduce food waste across the hospitality sector in the UAE. The initiative is part of Dubai Municipality's efforts to shift 75 per cent of the waste produced in the country from landfills.
"Currently we are operating in seven hotels in Dubai, with 20 new contracts to go live in the coming months. The Pullman Dubai Creek City Centre & Residences was one of the first hotels in the region that adopted our IoT technology. The hotel achieved four per cent reduction in food purchasing cost in only four months," said Zornes.
Currently, Winnow is live in 25 countries. Over the last three-and-a-half years the system has helped hundreds of kitchens cut waste in half and the customers typically save 3-8 per cent on food cost.
"We're saving our clients over $7 million globally. That's over 14,000 meals a day or one meal saved every five seconds. What's exciting is that we are just getting started," said Zornes.
Winnow was founded in 2013 and the first year was spent experimenting by putting the system into different kitchens and types of restaurants. Over the past couple of years, the company has seen over 300 per cent growth per annum.
Winnow has very limited competition. "However, we expect more competitors as the issue is so big. Meanwhile, we're exploring if there are other areas of help that chefs need in the kitchen," added Zornes.
During the first year, Winnow was funded entirely by its founders Zornes and Kevin Duffy. In 2015, Winnow raised an investment of £600,000 from about 20 private investors and venture capital funds, led by Mustard Seed group.
In 2016, the company completed Series A funding of £2.3 million in a round led by Mustard Seed and D-Ax. The team also received investment from some high-profile private investors.
Henry Wigan, co-founder and director of Investment, Mustard Seed, said: "Mustard Seed invests in companies that address global social and environmental challenges. Winnow brings data and process to kitchens. These precious savings are mission critical both for global sustainability and the bottom line of Winnow's clients. This epitomises what we call 'lock step' venture - whereby a positive social outcome grows in 'lock step' with the bottom line."
Ignacio Ramirez, operations manager for Mena region, said Winnow is a completely new way of addressing food waste. "Working with thousands of chefs in 25 countries demonstrates that this technology can provide a scalable, cost-effective solution to dramatically reduce food waste," he added.
Zornes said now is one of the best opportunities ever to start a business. "The tools we have are better than ever to build and scale a company very cheaply compared to historical standards. Raising capital, when you have the right product, is much easier too. With capital broadly available for startups, it's for the startup to make sure that they remain cost conscious as they grow," he said.
Winnow is planning to expand into new markets globally while continuing to grow in existing markets. "Ultimately we are working towards a future where every kitchen worldwide uses data to manage waste, in the same way they do now with sales or inventory management," concluded Zornes.
-arif@khaleejtimes.com