Hello friends. Spring is just about here and it’s a time of change so it’s the right time to let you know about the changes taking place here at Foodini HQ.
We’ve been running our subscription club for nearly 8 years in many variations; from a recipe kit company to a monthly postal club to the format we’ve been running for the last 3 years, the Seasonal Club. We’ve delivered many thousands of packs not only all across the UK but around the World; we’ve seen our packs sent to Australia, America and (before Brexit) to many European families. We’re super proud of all the recipes and activities we’ve created and partnerships we’ve made!
Over the last couple of years it has become an increasing challenge to run a small business, especially in the children’s activity market which has been hit hard by the rise in the cost of living. On top of that running a subscription service has been difficult thanks to everything from Brexit to the closure of packaging and materials suppliers to the changes in the online marketing space and the constant rise in postage, printing and material costs. We’ve been able to run a lean operation which has kept our costs down and meant that Foodini Club is still operating but as prices continue to rise we don’t believe in raising our prices and instead look at changing what we do (as we have done before).
The subscription box marketplace has changed a lot over the last 4 years from a high growth model to one post-COVID with limited appeal, especially in the children’s sector. We know that it’s unstable for many families at the moment and as a result we see the commitment to a subscription club isn’t viable for everyone – instead more people prefer to buy ‘off the shelf’ as and when it works, which is entirely understandable.
As a result of all this we have been considering the future of Foodini Club for the last few months. This month (March 25) we are at the end of a three year rotation and were due to start again with the Seasonal Club in the summer of this year (25), but we’ve decided to change things up and shift away from a subscription model while we focus on the core of what we do.
Is this the end of seasonal cook & craft packs? No, but we will no longer offer a running club which will ship every three months. Instead we’ll be creating a series of 4 single season packs available from the web shop to buy at any time which you can buy separately or together in any combination, if you want. These will offer a similar but slightly stripped back version of our Seasonal Club packs including:
- Sweet & savoury recipes
- Drink recipes
- Craft activities & craft materials
- Kitchen science experiments & relevant science materials
- Skills guides relevant to the pack contents
- Nature hunt
- Seasonal food guide (veg and fruit in season)
- Foraging guide
- Any extra & bonus items such as stickers, piping bags etc
There will no longer be any fresh or packaged ingredients such as herbs and spices, or elements which expire, and these packs will not change or rotate. Pricing will be lower than our current Seasonal Club packs for the single season packs due to changes in contents. If you have been a customer or subscriber of ours over the last three years there is a chance there will be recipes and content you have already received so you’d need to check the contents of that season’s pack on the web shop before you buy.
Alongside these packs we will introduce new themed packs based on existing popular recipes (e.g our popular ‘beans’ pack), celebration and partnership packs plus some new materials.
The new single season packs will be available for purchase from our website towards the end of the spring and the Seasonal Club will no longer be available for subscription or purchase from that point or one the packs are sold out (whichever comes first).
Ultimately all these new offerings will sit alongside our longer term goal which is very exciting; pulling together the Foodini Club book! We’ve lost count of how many times people have asked us whether we might write a book and after all these years of honing our activities and recipes we’ve started work to create the ultimate kids food book based on our experience and materials. More on that as we go!
Meanwhile we want to thank every one of you who have bought packs, subscribed for yourself or as gifts, spread word to friends and family and supported us over the last years. We’ve loved creating our club packs, hearing from so many families with newly forged young cooks and seeing all the food that’s been enjoyed! Our core mission has always been to help children discover the joy of cooking and eating real food and we are thrilled to be able to continue this adventure even as things change around us.
Keep on cooking!
x Laura