Everytable Investment Memo

Investment Memo Re: Everytable

Anima Mundi Development Partners (ADMP)

Brighton Balfrey

Introduction:

Everytable is a Los Angeles based chain of takeout restaurants specializing in offering healthy food at lower cost than competitors. Priced competitively with nationwide fast food offerings such as McDonalds, Everytable is trying to provide lower-income areas with affordable, premade meals priced relative to the communities they serve. Based off of extensive research, 

Everytable is a valuable investment into modern, healthy food alternatives sold at a price point with very few competitors and a mission that supports the communities it operates out of.

ADMP Pillars of Investment - Brief Overview:

According to Timothy Slaper and Tanya Hall of the Indiana Business Review, Triple Bottom Line has three dimensions: social, environmental, and financial. The social dimension deals with the social capital that a company can build within their community. This can include the following:

• Health-adjusted life expectancy

• Median Household Income

• Relative poverty

The environmental dimension deals with issues surrounding the consumption and destruction of natural resources. This can include the following:

• Pollutants

• Waste management

• Land use

Finally, the financial dimension deals with issues involving economic measures within the business’ realm. These can include the following:

• Personal income

• Job growth

• Cost of underemployment

Corporate social responsibility, CSR, is the alignment of a company’s social and environmental impacts with the business they run (Rangan, Chase, Karim). Similar to the triple bottom line in many ways, corporate social responsibility extends to being a business discipline that must be actively managed. Companies often focus on the following three areas in developing their CSR.

• Company led philanthropic endeavors

• Operations management with social and ecological responsibility

• Creating business models around social and environmental challenges

Social enterprise means taking into account not just profits and revenues, but also understanding the company’s relationship with the overarching environment that it operates out of (Bersin). This means that companies must foster relationships with their customers, communities, stakeholders, and employees rather than solely investing in the bottom line.

A company’s carbon footprint is the amount of greenhouse gas emissions that stem from all business activities that it is engaged in (The Nature Conservancy). Carbon dioxide and methane emissions are the two biggest drivers of climate disruption from greenhouse gases.

Measuring these pillars of investment varies from being a precise science to requiring a lot of estimation and critical thinking. Calculating a company’s carbon footprint is very scientific in nature: doing so requires measuring a company’s total greenhouse gas emissions. Social enterprise, triple bottom line, and corporate social responsibility are much more challenging to calculate, as there are no magic formulas that output an exact measurement. Rather, they require thinking critically about business processes. For example, corporate social responsibility can be measured by a company’s investment into that as a business function. However, then measuring the impact of CSR programs is difficult and varies business to business. 

Everytable

Overview:

• Los Angeles-based healthy takeout meal chain founded in 2015 by Sam Polk and David Foster (Jennings)

• 9 locations, including underserved areas such as Baldwin Hills, South LA, and Watts and wealthier areas such as Brentwood and Santa Monica. Plans to have 20 locations by the end of 2020 (Jennings)

• SmartFridge locations that further expand the business’ reach with lower overhead costs (Jennings)

• Subscription service for frequent customers, and delivery via services like DoorDash (Jennings)

• Healthy, trendy meals posing as an alternative to fast food conglomerates sold at similar price points - the salmon superfood salad, one of the most expensive menu items, being sold in South LA is less than 8 dollars (Jennings)

• New franchise model with year and a half training program designed to give underrepresented groups business opportunities and access to capital (Jennings)

• Multiple rounds of fundraising with prominent backers such as Kimbal Musk, Gwenyth Paltrow, and the Annenberg Foundation (Jennings)

Intro:

Everytable is a Los Angeles-based healthy takeout meal chain founded in 2015 by Sam Polk and David Foster. Its goal is to serve so-called “food desserts”, or underprivileged areas in Los Angeles without much access to affordable healthy food. Furthermore, the chain also has locations in wealthier communities such as Brentwood and Santa Monica. Dishes are made from scratch every morning and ingredients are locally sourced (Jennings). Leftover meals are given to local food banks. Everytable is using a franchise model for its business, and is rapidly spreading throughout the LA area.

Expansion through franchising:

In 2015, Everytable had just four locations. Fast forward to today, there are 9 locations open and plans for up to 20 to open by the end of 2020. Within the next five years, the brand hopes to have 25 locations across LA.

To further drive this rapid expansion, the brand has set-up a unique franchising opportunity designed to be equitable and give businesses back to the communities they operate within. Potential franchise owners do not have to secure funding themselves. Rather, Everytable helps them finance their businesses themselves. Furthermore, Everytable’s training programs teach everything needed to operate their business.

Physical locations...and more:

Everytable has traditional brick and mortar storefronts stocked with their premade meals. These storefronts also operate on popular meal delivery services such as Doordash, expanding their reach. Furthermore, they also have a subscription delivery service, with hundreds of users getting fresh meals delivered each week (Jennings). This allows them to compete with notable nationwide meal delivery services like Blue Apron.

A unique part of Everytables’ business is their SmartFridge locations. Essentially, these allow Everytable to sell their meals with a vending machine-like refrigerator. By preparing meals in a central location rather than in the brick and mortar stores, Everytable is able to keep these fridges stocked with the same fresh meals that the stores have. From these machines, Everytable can tap into businesses and universities across Southern California as well. Investing in technology like SmartFridge’s shows the innovative nature of the company, and the flexibility of their business model. 

Notable Investment:

Everytable has been through many rounds of successful investment. Prominent backers such as Kimbal Musk and Maria Shriver have personally contributed millions of dollars. Furthermore, the Annenberg Foundation and the California Wellness Foundation have also recently invested over 2.5 million dollars into the company (Jennings). Millions of dollars of backing directly translates into more locations and more accessibility for potential franchisees to open their own locations.

Competitors:

At Everytable’s price point, there are very few competitors with the same offerings. In neighborhoods like South Los Angeles, which the company calls a “food desert,” there are few, if any, healthy restaurants. Even in wealthier areas like Santa Monica, Everytable’s meals are still much cheaper than other restaurants. No matter your income group, you’d be hard pressed to find something as cheap and as healthy.

Everytable’s Alignment with ADMP Investment Pillars

• Meets the financial dimension of the triple bottom line pillar and the social enterprise pillar as their new franchise model gives businesses back to the community with flexible financing opportunities

• Meets the corporate social responsibility pillar as the company’s business model is surrounded by social change within the communities that it operates out of - through both financial opportunities and by tackling the problem of affordability of healthy food

• It is unclear if Everytable is measuring their carbon footprint actively. They sell food in disposable packaging, which inherently does have an environmental impact to produce.

Expert Opinions

1. California Wellness Foundation, investors into the health of California communities. Cal Wellness Foundation’s first program related investment into a for-profit company was Everytable in December 2019.

“We decided to invest in Everytable because it’s an outstanding example of a social enterprise—a business that has social objectives instead of focusing solely on maximizing profit. In Everytable's case, its mission is to "make nutritious, fresh food affordable and accessible to all," especially in communities that lack healthy food vendors, such as South Los Angeles.” (California Wellness Foundation)

Clearly, they believe that Everytable’s business practices align with the social enterprise pillar of ADMP. Furthermore, they believe in Everytable as a business as well.

“Everytable’s business model is very unique. First, it uses sliding-scale pricing: It charges lower prices in its five stores located in lower income neighborhoods, and higher prices in its two stores located in the affluent neighborhoods. Second, the company prepares its meals in one central kitchen, which creates efficiencies and keeps the footprint of its stores relatively small, creating savings on real estate costs. Meals that are meant to be served hot are heated in microwaves, which are available in the stores.” (California Wellness Foundation)

Not only does the sliding scale pricing model benefit the communities that Everytable operates out of, it’s also a competitive advantage for the business. Furthermore, California Wellness Foundation sees Everytable’s operations strategy - preparing meals in one central location rather than in individual kitchens within their brick and mortar stores - as a cost cutting differentiating factor.

2. Adele Peters of Fast Company wrote about Everytables’ relief meals provided to homeless and senior members of the Los Angeles community, reinforcing the social enterprise and corporate social responsibility of the company.

“Now, as the state’s Project Roomkey program connects people experiencing homelessness with hotel rooms—leasing entire hotels to meet the demand—Everytable is providing multiple meals a day. “Every time they lease a hotel, Everytable comes in and sets up refrigeration and water service and then starts supplying the food three meals a day for all of those people and the staff,” Polk says.” (Peters)

Everytable is actively building off of a California state program to further bolster the homeless’ access to healthy food. Here, Everytable is putting their money where their mouth is by absorbing the costs of the meals for the homeless. Furthermore, they are organized and working within the bounds of the Project Roomkey program.

“We knew that seniors in Brentwood and Beverly Hills could just order Postmates and Instacart,” says CEO and cofounder Sam Polk. “Seniors in Compton and South L.A. might not be accustomed to that and didn’t have the money to cover the extra delivery fees. So there was going to be a big problem when it came to access to food.” (Peters)

Everytable also sees the inequity in access to delivery services for seniors. Understanding the differences between the various communities they serve shows that the brand has an awareness of the communities they operate out of. This demonstrates the brands understanding of the social issues their communities face.

Conclusion

Everytable is a rapidly growing, profitable, and socially responsible grab and go chain in Los Angeles. Because of their sustainable business development practices as well as their unique offerings relative to the competitive landscape they operate out of, I believe that ADMP should invest in Everytable. Very few businesses are able to balance social responsibility and enterprise with profitability, yet Everytable is able to do this while providing a product that everybody loves: healthy, delicious, food.

Works Cited

Slaper, Timothy F. Hall, Tanya J. The Triple Bottom Line: What Is It and How Does It Work? 

Indiana Business Review. Spring 2011. https://www.ibrc.indiana.edu/ibr/2011/spring/pdfs/article2.pdf

Rangan, V. Kasturi. Chase, Lisa. Karim, Sohel. The Truth About CSR. Harvard Business 

Review. January 2015. https://hbr.org/2015/01/the-truth-about-csr

Bersin, Josh. The Rise Of The Social Enterprise: A New Paradigm For Business. Forbes.

April 3, 2018. https://www.forbes.com/sites/joshbersin/2018/04/03/the-rise-of-the-social-enterprise-a-new-paradigm-for-business/#534c178871f0

The Nature Conservancy. Calculate Your Carbon Footprint.

https://www.nature.org/en-us/get-involved/how-to-help/carbon-footprint-calculator/

Jennings, Lisa. Everytable wins $2.5M investment to recruit franchisees of color from 

underserved areas. January 29, 2020. https://www.restaurant-hospitality.com/owners/everytable-wins-25m-investment-recruit-franchisees-color-underserved-areas

California Wellness Foundation. Everytable Makes Good Food Available to Everyone, No 

Exceptions. California Wellness Foundation. https://www.calwellness.org/stories/everytable/

Peters, Adele. How this Los Angeles healthy restaurant chain pivoted to emergency relief. Fast 

Company. https://www.fastcompany.com/90492082/how-this-los-angeles-healthy-restaurant-chain-pivoted-to-emergency-relief