Bonduelle, the France-based vegetable products supplier, has linked up with US tech start-up Chowbotics to create a robotic vending machine for salad products.
It has already been tested and the company is now starting to deploy the machines in its home market.
Nicknamed Sally the Robot in the US, where Chowbotics now has 60 operational machines, Bonduelle has dubbed its French version Cabaletta.
It has been tested at five locations in the Lille area and Bonduelle deployed its first permanent robot a month ago at catering and foodservice company Elior’s head office in Paris.
Described as a vending machine that allows quick and easy access to a vegetable diet, it has 22 refrigerated cylinders and can hold up to 18 different seasonal ingredients.
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Bonduelle offers four salad recipes prepared by a chef from the Paul Bocuse Institute but consumers can compose their own salad by choosing among the ingredients. The salads are mixed together and delivered in one and a half minutes.
The company’s deputy group CEO Gregory Sanson told just-food: “Some other launches are in the loop for early January, at French retailers in Paris city centre.”
He said other venues – such as hospitals and offices – may be also be considered as a result of its relationship with Elior.
“We have the ambition to keep on deploying Cabaletta in France and Europe in 2020. We are currently on a test-and-learn phase, assessing the appropriate business model and value chain,” Sanson added.
“Cabaletta is matching perfectly with Bonduelle Group’s ambition to be the world reference in ‘well-living’ through plant-based food.”
He added the tie-up also fits in with the company’s plans to consider “new opportunities to distribute products outside of retailers and customary out-of-home points of sales through dedicated stores, and, in this case, robots.”
