The Pure Food Co’s mission to nourish the world’s seniors has secured a major breakthrough, with the Kiwi food technology innovator’s announcement of a partnership with one of Australia’s largest aged care operators.
The Pure Food Co has inked a deal with Regis Aged Care to provide high quality, nutritious and delicious meals to its residents on texture-modified diets.
With more than 7000 residents at 67 facilities right across the country, Regis is the second largest aged care provider in Australia.
Co-founder and co-CEO Sam Bridgewater said the partnership with Regis is “a massive moment” in the Auckland-based company’s growth journey in Australia, cementing its reputation as the market leader on both sides of the Tasman.
Regis will be the largest client among the more than 50 operators The Pure Food Co supports in Australia, Mr Bridgewater said.
“Aussie is now the biggest part of our business, with almost 450 aged care and health facilities there relying on The Pure Food Co to support residents and patients on specialised, texture-modified diets,” he said.
“Our success there, as well as our growing presence in France, is proof that New Zealand companies can make it on the world stage. Kiwi ingenuity is not bound by borders.
“The problem we set out to solve is a problem affecting older people right across the globe, so it’s only natural that we have global ambitions. We’ve always said we want to nourish the world’s seniors, not just New Zealand’s.”
Linda Mellors, Regis Managing Director and CEO, said: “Partnering with The Pure Food Co for this subset of meal types underscores our unwavering commitment to continuously enhance the dining experience and providing the best options for our residents,” Mellors said.
“This provides Regis an exciting opportunity to create new products, offering more choice and nutritious options for residents.”
Bridgewater, who started the company in 2013 after his step-father became ill and couldn’t find meals he wanted to eat – slowing his recovery – said in Australia alone there are around 220,000 people in residential aged care and about 30 per cent of them are on some kind of texture-modified diet.
“That’s equivalent to the entire population of Rotorua needing the kind of specialised support we provide.”
In September last year, Mr Bridgewater and The Pure Food Co co-founder and co-CEO Maia Royal won the services category at the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Awards, just four months after the company was recognised at the Asia Pacific Eldercare Innovation Awards as providing the best food and nutrition system to improve the health of older people.
ENDS
