INABUGGY adds catering option, partners with Starsky Foods
Grocery delivery service INABUGGY has introduced a catering delivery service and added the European-inspired grocery chain Starsky Foods to its growing number of retail partners.
The catering service offers charcuterie boards, breakfast pastries, tea sandwiches, veggie platters and desserts from companies including Coppa's, Food for Thought and What a Bagel. Catering represents a "logical vertical" for INABUGGY, says CEO Julian Gleizer, building on growing customer appetite for prepared meals.
"Because prepared meals are one of our top sellers, we noticed that a lot of people were asking for the catering option," he says. "They tend to be portioned in packages of one or two, and it gets a little more costly if you order 50 prepared meal packages versus going to a catering company." INABUGGY is currently offering 24-hour turnaround on catering products, though the goal is to eventually get to same-day, says Gleizer (pictured).
The company also continues to add to its retail partnerships, with Starsky filling what Gleizer describes as a "void" on the service when it comes to ethnic food. INABUGGY will feature more than 20,000 SKUs from Starsky—including fresh, prepared foods and grocery items—many of them unique items from Europe.
READ: Starsky Fine Foods takes over Michael-Angelo’s locations
The addition of the independent grocer Starsky, which operates stores in Mississauga, Aurora and Hamilton, bring's INABUGGY's total number of retail partners across the country to nearly 50, with more than 600,000 available SKUs. "We want to partner with as many retailers as we can to provide convenience and more assortment to our customer base," says Gleizer. Its top-sellers are prepared foods, fresh produce, and meat and seafood.
INABUGGY currently operates in most major markets across Canada, and continues to build out its offering in secondary markets. The company is also looking to expand into the U.S., possibly as early as this year, with an emphasis on densely populated, high-income areas, says Gleizer.
INABUGGY's active user base continues to grow "significantly" month over month, with the average basket size increasing to approximately $218 from $200 a year ago. Customers are increasingly doing full shops with the service, he says, particularly after the 2017 introduction of "store pricing" that eliminated price mark-ups and the 2016 addition of alcohol.
"People can get everything they want and need in one-stop, so more than 90% of their