DabbaDrop 2024: The Take-Away with a Difference

Anshu, founder of DabbaDrop, was inspired to create the business in 2018 after experiencing unfulfilling takeaways with low-quality, minimal veggie options, and excessive plastic waste. Seeking a better alternative, Anshu, alongside co-founder Renee, launched DabbaDrop, delivering plant-based meals in reusable steel dabbas to reduce environmental impact. Their innovative pre-ordering system minimizes food waste, and all deliveries are made using eco-friendly methods such as pushbikes, e-bikes, and zero-emission vehicles, ensuring a sustainable and satisfying dining experience. DeliveryRank has the opportunity to chat with Anshu.

Anshu, what inspired you to create DabbaDrop, and how has your mission evolved since its inception in 2018?

Back in 2018, my neighbor Renee and I, both busy working mums with hectic schedules, often got together on Friday evenings with other neighbors for a glass of wine while our kids played, and we would order takeaway. However, the experience was usually underwhelming. The food often arrived in flimsy plastic containers, upsetting the children when it came on noisy scooters. Vegetarian options were minimal, and despite our good intentions to recycle, the flimsy plastic containers often ended up in the trash by Monday.

After several such disappointing experiences, we started thinking there had to be a better way to order food and make it more of an enjoyable experience rather than a disappointing transaction at the door. Growing up in Mumbai, I was familiar with the dabbawala service, where delicious homestyle food is delivered in reusable tins. Inspired by this, we began discussing the idea of creating something similar here.

Both of us were looking for a way out of our previous careers, which were becoming increasingly difficult to manage alongside our family responsibilities. We wanted to create something for ourselves that offered a more manageable schedule. This is how DabbaDrop was born. Our mission was simple: to create and deliver delicious food to our customers’ doors in the most sustainable way possible.

We are 100% single-use plastic-free, delivering by bike, and all our food is handmade fresh each week using heirloom family recipes that have been passed down through generations. Our mission remains the same: to make people feel good by providing guilt-free dining options that bring comfort to their homes.

How do you ensure the quality and freshness of the meals in each DabbaDrop, given the delivery process and the need to heat the food upon arrival?

Everything is made from scratch in our commercial kitchen in East London. We prepare all the spice mixes, curry paste, and every single dish by hand, ensuring complete quality control through meticulous portioning. Renee and I remain very hands-on in the business. For instance, we personally handle all the garnishes, ensuring everything meets our high standards before it goes out.

Over the years, we've trained a dedicated team that understands and upholds the quality and standards we expect. Our delivery process is streamlined to ensure freshness; we cook the food the day before and deliver it the next day, minimizing the time it spends in the fridge or on a bike. This approach allows us to maintain the highest level of freshness while feeding 1,500 to 2,000 people weekly.

Although we don't own any bikes ourselves, the council has awarded us a bike for local deliveries. We outsource our deliveries to a couple of courier companies, and we also work with a handful of freelance couriers. These couriers use regular bikes, each capable of carrying 6 to 8 tiffins in a backpack. They make multiple trips to ensure timely deliveries. This system allows us to efficiently serve our local community while maintaining the quality and freshness of our food.

Can you elaborate on the environmental benefits of using reusable steel dabbas and zero-emission delivery vehicles for your service?

Each dabba can be reused hundreds of times. We have dabbas in circulation that we bought back in 2018 that are still going strong. If something breaks, we can repair it. The tins are made of food-grade stainless steel, which holds up well in the dishwasher.

Despite running my own food business, I still order takeaway sometimes. It's always a dilemma of what to do with all the packaging. The UK is in a confusing place regarding recycling and composting. We're told to recycle and reuse, but the public system hasn't evolved enough, so it's hard to know where recycled items actually end up.

Reusing is the only way out of this situation. Our containers are designed to leave no trace, and they can be melted down or reused to create something else. This is not always the case with reusable plastic containers. While there are processes in place to repurpose plastic, it's not as reliable. For now, using our dabbas is the best way to control consumption and reduce waste.

How do you maintain variety and excitement in your menu while staying true to your goal of providing nourishing and homely South Asian cuisine?

Each week, we create a different menu. Our dabbas have a consistent structure: the top layer typically holds a salad, the next a vegetable curry, the next layer contains a dhal or legume dish, and the bottom layer has a carb. This formula is applied across all our menus, but the beauty of Indian, South Asian, and Asian cuisine is its incredible variety.

We can introduce a wide range of vegetables, textures, curries, lentil dishes, and salads. By traveling to a different region each week through our menu, we ensure there's always something new and exciting in every dabba, maintaining variety and keeping our offerings fresh and interesting.

How do you plan to use the new investment to expand DabbaDrop's reach and improve support for your customers and community?

One of our first priorities is to invest in our website to make it more user-friendly, allowing customers to easily skip or pause orders and add more flexibility. This will enhance the overall experience, which is currently a bit clunky. The investment will also help us expand our delivery range within London. Currently, we only cover about one-third of the city, and we aim to serve the entire area.

Additionally, we plan to expand to other cities like Brighton and Oxford, where there is significant interest in our concept. This expansion is part of our 18-month to two-year plan. Beyond that, we want to refine our model so that it can be replicated in other cities, starting with Manchester and Birmingham.

Our long-term goal, over the next four to six years, is to perfect our operations, website, and delivery system before scaling up. Eventually, we hope to expand internationally. We've received requests from cities like New York, New Delhi, and Sydney, and we see potential for global growth. However, as there are only two of us steering the business right now, we're committed to sustainable progress and growth. We want to avoid overextending ourselves and ensure that we maintain the quality and integrity of our business model.

While there are investors who want rapid growth, we believe in measured, sustainable expansion to avoid compromising our business.

If you would like to find out more about DabbaDrop, please visit https://dabbadrop.co.uk/collections/dabbadrop-products