Picnic Works Inks Deal with Speedy Eats
Picnic Works, Seattle-based provider of food automation technology, has closed a deal with Baton Rouge, La.-based Speedy Eats for the first wave of Picnic Pizza Station orders. The initial Picnic stations will be placed in the inaugural Speedy Eats automated kitchens with a projected volume of 5,000 U.S. locations in the next five years.
Speedy Eats is a new dining and pickup concept that places fully contained drive-thru operations in locations where customers can purchase hot and cold food items at any time of day or night. The company is eyeing over 40,000 potential parking lot locations in the U.S. and plans to incorporate a patent-pending design that allows takeout customers and third-party delivery platforms to roll up and access orders from the convenience of their vehicle. Speedy Eats also plans to open regional kitchen production centers that craft the food to supply the stations.
“Our goal is to bring fresh food to people whenever and wherever they want it and we’re ambitious in our plans to open 5,000 locations in the next five years. The Picnic Pizza Station is the must-have piece of equipment to produce the consistent quality pizza that our customers desire,” said F. Speed Bancroft, CEO and President of BARS Inc. “We’re partnering with Picnic for their expertise in automation and proven market success.”
This agreement allows Speedy Eats to integrate the Picnic Pizza Station technology into its standalone and commissary locations to enhance production, improve customer experience, and offer fresh-made custom pizzas. With projected volumes of 5,000 locations in the next five years, the value of the deal is over $800M to Picnic. Picnic will begin manufacturing for Speedy Eats in line with location openings starting in 2022, with increased roll out over the next several years.
The Picnic Pizza Station is autonomous and completely customizable for each order – after loading the dough, the Picnic station takes care of applying the sauce, cheese, fresh-cut pepperoni, and additional toppings. The finished pizzas are then loaded into the kitchen's ovens for cooking. Each hour, the Picnic station can assemble up to 100 pizzas.
