Now there is often a soft drink machine on the station platform or in an office building. Soon, a smoothie machine may just replace that. Belgian company Alberts wants to conquer Europe with its "smoothie robot" and make it healthier.
The Albert's smoothie machine is, simply put, a vending machine filled with pure and fresh ingredients such as frozen fruits and vegetables and filtered water. At the machine, consumers can use an app to create their own smoothie or choose from the range. Exactly how you want it.
The machine's creators, three former engineering students, want their automated smoothie maker to make it easier for people to make healthy choices. "Already during our student days, we noticed that healthy living was not always easy and accessible, you really had to invest time and money in it," said Glenn Mathijssen, one of the founders. "As students, we spent a long time looking for concepts to change the world and this idea always stuck. When I was in New York with co-founder Philippe and bought a smoothie there, it contained nothing more than half a banana, some red syrups and powders. We said to each other: 'for $8, we should be able to do better'. Then we started putting all the pieces together and finding a solution to this issue."
The machine
However, a suitable machine turned out to be no easy task. "All the machines we could find did not meet all our requirements," says Philippe Hennin. "What we wanted was a healthy smoothie that was quick to prepare, customisable and affordable. The existing machines all worked with freeze-dried fruit, powders or purees, so we didn't want that. That's why we started developing our own machine." Philippe says it like it's the simplest thing in the world, but of course it wasn't. "We experienced first-hand that a hardware startup can be quite challenging. What we immediately ran into were finances. These are just desperately needed to pay for the necessary materials and man-hours. With a government grant and our own savings, we initially created a manual prototype containing the electronics, programming, hardware and various techniques. With that, we hit the road to gather market feedback, and convince investors. The first customers were wildly enthusiastic, resulting in long queues and many burnt-out blenders."
That convincing investors succeeded nicely, but there were other stumbling blocks. For instance, coming up with a technique for the pure fruit and vegetables was a challenge. Glenn: "If you work with purees, there is already certain pumping technology available in combination with pasteurised bags. We have optimised a cartridge system through which bananas, kiwis, cucumbers and other fruits and vegetables can pass without sticking together. If you then also want robotic freezing technology and a cleaning system, it gets really complicated. So we had to develop those kinds of parts all by ourselves. That took more time than we thought."
Prices
Alberts already won two major awards as a startup for its smoothie machine. Most recently, it won the prize for Best Technology Innovation at the World Food Innovation Awards in London. For Best Technology Innovation, there were 15 entries, from which six finalists were chosen. A panel of experts from all branches of the food industry chose Alberts as the winner. Earlier, it also won the Future of Nutrition Award, an award presented by Fi Europe.
Locations
The first batch of 10 machines is now on the market. They have found a place at the Belgian supermarket chain Carrefour, among others. The makers are also in talks with Dutch supermarkets, but there is no final deal yet. They hope that the machine will eventually be placed in all sorts of places where people frequent or spend their day. Think workplaces, schools, nursing homes, hospitals and sports environments. "We bring health to people and thus make it easier for them to adopt a healthy lifestyle," he says.
There are now applications from more than 50 countries. "Our next goal is to get the production volume up. We aspire eventually to a kind of franchise system, in different locations in different countries. We want people from all over the world, starting in Europe, to start using this machine on a daily basis and for it to become a habit in the health pattern. That is our hope."
In Belgium, Alberts has currently launched the Healthy 50 campaign. This campaign means that the companies that are among the first to purchase an Alberts "smoothie robot" will be part of the Healthy 50 companies. The aim is to eventually roll out this campaign to the Netherlands. Companies interested can already contact Alberts now.
www.alberts.be
team@alberts.be
@albertsliving
By: Kelly Bakker
Source: Alberts
