So many vital elements must come together for Tasty Fresh Food Co. to succeed —it’s not just the Tasty Trucks. AMT Editor Paul Hellard goes back for more.
There’s a lot of heart and soul in the Tasty Fresh Food Company. There’s the staff, the food and the trucks, and the interface can be the entire community. Since opening in 1979, this little food truck company has expanded from Melbourne into NSW, QLD, and Perth. The logistics are astounding.
A proud people person, CEO Colin Lear leaps around the headquarters, from accounts to the boardroom, from the kitchens to the vast hangar where vans shoot in and out, and from the large workshop and garage where eastern Victoria’s Tasty vans are fitted out and gassed up. Colin knows practically everyone in the Ferntree Gully HQ by name.
Highly organised chaos greets us as the vans return from a busy day out. Then there’s the setup for tonight’s production. Tasty Trucks has a fully-fitted bakery in the headquarters here as well. “We make all our fresh products here ready to stock our vans tomorrow morning, and we do that in four states,” explains Lear. “We’ve got tomorrow’s production right here. What’s happening here is that a day crew comes in and sets up for the night team of 50 employees, who come in to line up on the conveyor belts to assemble all the products for the Melbourne fleet of 70 vans. This includes sandwiches, wraps, sushi, salads, hot meals, burritos and other items bought to stack the vans to complete the spread.
“And that surprises most people: we manufacture most of it ourselves,” adds Lear. “As far as food manufacturing goes, we are HACCP certified which involves a great deal of international food safety regulations which we take very seriously.”
Tasty Trucks operate 24 hours on business days. While they handle a 24-hour cycle, they only operate on the 243 business days of the year. “On each of those days, we have a very, very narrow window of retail opportunity, from about seven in the morning out to one o’clock in the afternoon. That’s the typical time our Tasty Trucks are out there.”
An important key to the Tasty Fresh Food Co. business is the crew of Tasty Trucks Van Sales Managers who merchandise the product in the trucks before heading out in droves to provide morning tea and lunches to employees at their place of work. “They develop a happy relationship with the customers and make sure the fresh food product is well presented for the express Grab n Go experience, which is the culmination of a mighty Tasty Team effort,” says Lear.
Colin has managed to engage family members who remain heavily involved in the business. As we head back to the boardroom, he introduces me to his daughter Katherine Pereira. Katherine is clearly engaged with the team at the head office and working closely alongside Colin. “My son, Matt, works on the Tasty MicroMarkets, too. This is another arm of the business specialising in food vending machines, which has great promise.”
Fitting out the vans
Tasty Fresh Food Co. is a registered vehicle builder specialising in managing the production of its uniquely designed Tasty Fresh Lunch Vans. At its FTG HQ and Fleet Facility, Tasty has manufactured and fitted out approximately 200 Tasty Mk.II vans since 2010, utilising the Toyota Hi-Ace van as the base model. Local fabricator, New Touch Industries has produced the stainless steel ovens and shelving in kit form ready for the Tasty Fresh Fleet Team to incorporate into the fibreglass catering body produced by highly valued long-term local partners Kings Fibreglass. On average, the company has been capable of producing a dozen new vans per year, with each van taking approximately three months to complete. However, since significant design changes in 2019 rendered the Hi-Ace Van no longer fit for purpose, Tasty Fresh Food Co. has joined forces with the Monash Innovation Labs to develop the next-generation Tasty Mk.III van. This van will feature a catering box mounted on a Hino 300 cab chassis and offer many enhanced capabilities.
Colin works with talented local mechanics and mechanics recruited through TPRC, a Philippino recruitment company. Three engineering students from Monash Innovation Labs were brought on to help simulate an open-face delivery system on the side of the delivery vehicles. Since then, one of the students has stayed as a part-time employee during the final stages of his degree.
“The big task that we challenged the Monash team was to remove all barriers (doors, etc.) for the customer while choosing their favourite product and still maintaining a five-degree food-safe temperature,” explained Lear. “And that’s what the Monash guys came up with by redesigning the refrigeration system and incorporating customised air curtains to keep the product fresh no matter the external ambient temperature.”
Tasty Fresh Food Company Mk II vans all began their lives as a very empty, raw version of a Toyota Hi-Ace van. The next version will be an even lighter HINO van with a fibreglass body to complete that signature Tasty Truck shape. It will weigh the same, but it will have more power, which can be used in the improved refrigeration system. “These vans are so dependable that after 15 years of service, we decommission them as a lunch van to protect our unique IP and sell them off as a tradie van.”
The Tasty Fresh Food Company has an exciting future ahead. Many innovations and great initiatives are happening throughout the whole business, which is fantastic. The Tasty team is ready to go with enthusiasm for working in this dynamic environment, and the energy for progress is thriving.