Picnic Leaps Ahead in 2021, Delivering Pizza-Making Automation on Quest to Transform the Future of Food Preparation
Picnic Pizza Station saw new demand, new partners, and award recognition from the food service industry, media, and customers
SEATTLE, Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Picnic Works™, Seattle-based innovator of food production technology, today announces major milestones achieved in 2021. Continuing its journey to transform the future of food preparation, Picnic is helping kitchens lower costs by decreasing food waste and streamlining operations through robotic automation and human innovation.
"We work every day to revolutionize the food service industry with our innovative technology, and success in our Series A round of funding has added fuel to our development," said Clayton Wood, CEO of Picnic. "In addition to investor recognition, our partners, the media, and our newest customers are embracing the Picnic solution to save kitchens time, money, and labor, while consistently delivering the perfect pizza. We have defined our core values, seen incredible industry demand for our solution, and we see that the transformation into food automation is arriving. Automation is going to be the answer that wins."
The team grew by 83% in 2021, allowing Picnic to expand its engineering, roboticists, food engineers, marketing, and customer support teams. Even with this growth, Picnic continues to hire for all job functions as customer demand increases. Restaurant partnerships also grew, and Series A funding secured in Spring 2021 positions the team for Series B in the months ahead.
Picnic began taking pre-orders in November 2021 on its e-commerce website, allowing new customers to secure their place in line as the Picnic Pizza Station becomes available. As a result, customers can now make a deposit to reserve one of two configurations for 2022 delivery:
- The Works, a modular assembly line to deliver sauce, cheese, fresh-sliced pepperoni, and granular toppings.
- The Essentials, when all that is needed is sauce, cheese, and fresh-sliced pepperoni.
Notable industry partners include Ethan Stowell Restaurants, a strategic culinary and chef partnership. Picnic is also working closely with Orion Land Mark, the largest supplier of pizza and pizza components to the convenience store industry around the world; the National Service Cooperative, a leader in food service equipment; and Baseline Hardware Financing, supplying financial support in customer deployments.
"We pride ourselves on creating unique experiences and refined, delicious food, and look forward to lending our expertise to Picnic," said Ethan Stowell, founder & CEO of Ethan Stowell Restaurants. "The Picnic Pizza Station provides value to kitchens of all sizes. From small pizzerias to large stadiums, everyone understands the benefits of saving time and money. Picnic is unique in that it offers all of the above."
Picnic made appearances at multiple events this year, including Pizza Expo, where the team showcased the Picnic Pizza Station pizza-making prowess. Picnic was honored with additional top industry recognition in 2021, including the National Restaurant Association's prestigious "Kitchen Innovations 2021 Award." Other notable awards include:
- GeekWire: "Hardware/Gadget/Robotics of the Year" - 2021 finalist
- AgTech Breakthrough "Restaurant Tech Innovation of the Year" - 2021
- The Spoon: "Food Tech 25 List"
- LuxLife: "Kitchen Automation Innovators of the Year" - 2021
In closing out 2021, Picnic celebrates having made more than 6,000 pizzas, using a total of 48,336 ounces of sauce (or 378 gallons) and 4,153 pounds of cheese. In addition, 275 pizzas were donated to Ballard Food Bank in 2021. The entire Picnic team looks forward to 2022, fulfilling the high demand for the Picnic Pizza Station and continuing efforts to transform the food industry and strengthen partner and customer relationships.
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About Picnic Works:
Founded in 2016, Picnic Works (hellopicnic.com) has collected an experienced team of food and technology industry veterans to develop and provide specialized intelligent technology and exclusive solutions for the food service and hospitality industries. Restaurants, convenient and grocery stores, university and corporate campuses, casinos, hotels, cruise lines, sports venues, catering groups, healthcare cafeterias, small kiosks, ghost kitchen operators, mobile food operations, food trucks, delivery, and military sites are among the many segments poised to benefit from the company's automated food assembly platform integrating RaaS, software, cloud, and deep learning technology.
Find Picnic online at hellopicnic.com or on social media at facebook.com/picnicgroup, linkedin.com/company/picnicnews, twitter.com/picnicnews, and instagram.com/picnicnews.
Business Inquiries for Picnic:
Lamont Glendinning
[email protected]
Media Contact
Aaron Blank / Erin Dubots, Fearey, +1 206-343-1543, [email protected]
SOURCE Picnic Works
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