Boxgreen doubles daily output with new plant at Changi Prison

Singapore

THE daily output of Boxgreen, a snack box subscription startup, has almost doubled since it opened a new packing facility in June.

At its new plant located in Changi Prison, 20 selected inmates work full-day shifts as snack packers, with four full-time supervisors. This is in addition to 25 other full-time employees in its office.

Co-founder and chief executive officer of Boxgreen Walter Oh said the new facility produces up to 5,000 portions of snacks daily, up from 2,000 in the previous facility in Mandai.

The new 3,500 sq ft plant has three times more space than its previous facility in Mandai, which is no longer in operation. About 50 varieties of snacks are produced at the facility.

Mr Oh said: "The prison selects well behaved inmates to work as snack packers. A number of them have F&B experience and can use pre-existing skills.

"Those who don't have the necessary certifications will undergo training, and the hope is that they will continue using these skills in the future."

Over the next year, the startup is looking at employing up to three ex-offenders to work with its logistics team after they are released.

"Inclusive hiring makes our brand more than just a product. We don't just want to sell nuts, we want to sell nuts that have a purpose, said Mr Oh.

Funding for the facility came partially from a pre-Series A funding that Boxgreen raised in May, said Mr Oh, 32, who declined to share specific financial details.

However, he disclosed that Boxgreen has raised over S$1 million since it started in 2014. The company is backed by investors including Octava Impact Investment and Expara Ventures.

The scaling up of its production facility is also supported by the Singapore Centre for Social Enterprise, which pumped in nearly 40 per cent of the funding.

For the past four years, revenue at the five-year-old startup has doubled year-on-year, topping seven figures last year, said Mr Oh.

Boxgreen stocks its snacks in supermarket Cold Storage, online grocery shop Redmart and 57 vending machines. Its first vending machine was launched in January 2017. About 290 snacks can be stocked in each vending machine, with the items replaced every quarter on average.

The bulk of the vending machines are stationed in companies including DBS and Twitter, and the snacks are also stocked in some 300 other companies' pantries.

In May, the company acquired Juicy Folks, a cold press juice manufacturer, and now stocks juice bottles alongside their snacks in its vending machines.

Boxgreen co-founder Andrew Lim, 34, said: "We eventually want to expand in the retail sector but that requires more resources. For now, we are focused on building up our own distribution channel."

Boxgreen also supplies its snacks to airline carriers such as Scoot and Jetstar, and sells directly to consumers through its website and subscription boxes.

Through these channels, Boxgreen sold over a million snack packs last year, a 20-fold increase since its first year of operations.

A Euromonitor report released this April showed that better-for-you packaged food grew by 39 per cent in current retail value terms from 2008, reaching S$67 million in 2018.

Mr Oh said he hopes Boxgreen's revenue will continue to grow steadily year-on-year in the next three years through international expansion and distribution.

However, there are no concrete plans yet. The startup will continue to expand its offline distribution in supermarkets, as well as work with partners at trade shows.