Lite n’ Easy is seeking more than 200 staff to cater for growth plans
A high-profile Brisbane ready-made-meal business generating more than $200m in sales a year is boosting its workforce to cater for growing demand.
QLD Business
Don't miss out on the headlines from QLD Business. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Demand for one of Australia’s leading home delivery healthy meal services has boomed during the Covid pandemic sparking a recruitment drive in Brisbane.
An Australian pioneer in the competitive weight loss and health meal service sector, Lite n’ Easy is seeking more than 100 new permanent, part-time and casual staff at its Banyo head office and kitchen facility in Brisbane with roles ranging from chefs, meal assembly and food preparation to call centre operators, warehousing and logistics, IT and customer support.
Lite n’ Easy’s chief executive Dennis Stark said across Australia they were seeking about 200 new employees after investing about $80m in the business over the past 18 months, reflecting a general increase in business within the healthy meal delivery service sector.
“It’s been a busy couple of years for us,” he said.
“The opportunity for us with the growth in fresh meals, as well as our frozen food range, as well the opportunities in our Home Care Package offering, has allowed us to reinvest into the business across the country.
“Demand because of Covid is part of it as has the changing demographics of ageing Australians who have been staying home longer and in turn are more reliant on service like ours making and delivering healthy food.”
According to latest Roy Morgan research more than 5.5 million (26.5 per cent) Australians aged over 14 used meal delivery services in 2020, up from 3.9 million the year before.
While the youngest generations were most likely to use meal delivery services because of lock downs, percentage of the pre-baby boomer generation more than doubled to 9 per cent and Baby Boomers almost doubled to 11.4 per cent.
Launched in Queensland in 1986 by Graham Mitchell who still owns the company, Lite n’ Easy, which operates under the Mitchell’s Quality Foods umbrella, set out to deliver healthy quality food direct to the customer that would aid long-term weight loss.
Lite n Easy, which employs more than 1600 people across Australia, more than doubled its profit in 2020 to $5.24m from $2.01m in 2019, according to financial statements lodged with ASIC. Revenue increased from $200m to $210m over same period.
It delivers more than 1 million fresh and frozen meals per week across Australia with the Brisbane facility produces all of the frozen meals for the rest of Australia.
It delivers both weight loss focused meals and healthy meals including to older Australians and those people in the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
This year the company was rated No. 1 in Canstar Blue’s Healthy Meal Delivery services category for the second year in a row scoring top marks in taste and quality, variety of
meals, freshness, ease of ordering, delivery, customer service and overall satisfaction.
Lite n’ Easy was rated ahead of Choice Fresh Meals, Dinnerly, HelloFresh, Marley Spoon and Youfoodz in a competitive market.
Youfoodz, currently headquartered in the industrial precinct of Virginia in Brisbane’s north the company is set to be acquired by German-owned HelloFresh in a $125m deal. Youfoodz reported a $3.5m net loss last financial year.
The company is reported to have secured a facility in the new Berrinba Logistics Hub in Logan south of Brisbane, controlled by the LOGOS fund management and development group.
Mr Stark said Lite n’ Easy was focused on expanding its product range and capacity.
“We are a purpose-built organisation aiming to create a healthier and happier Australia with the right food and right portions,” he said.
“We only deliver to our customers. We have a direct one-to-one relationship with every customer so we can drive that level of service.”
Poolwerx boss hands over the reins amid US expansion
The man behind a Brisbane-based global $300 million pool and spa maintenance company is handing over the reins 32 years after founding it, just as the business takes off in the US.
Breaking the supermarket duopoly: Inside Aldi’s rapid rise
When a largely unknown, no-frills German supermarket chain launched in Australia more than 20 years ago, no one predicted its meteoric rise would rival giants Woolworths and Coles. But Aldi is reshaping the way we shop.