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Business

Trucks that sell bulk meat in parking lots may head to NY

By
Lisa Fickenscher
Published Sep. 29, 2017, 10:34 p.m. ET

Zaycon Fresh, a meat seller that skips stores to sell its discounted steaks and pork chops directly out of trailer trucks, is eyeing the New York area — and says it’s close to raising $50 million to make it happen.

The Spokane, Wash.-based outfit typically asks its mostly suburban and rural customers to meet its trucks in church parking lots, where they pick up their rib eyes, salmon filets and sausage links by the crate.

The minimum order for most meats — which aren’t organic but are billed as “all-natural,” with no antibiotics — is a whopping 40 pounds. The minimum for bacon is 36 pounds, while fish orders can be as small as 20 pounds.

“We appeal to families who have a freezer in their garage,” Zaycon co-founder Mike Conrad told The Post.

That includes carnivores in the New York and Boston metro areas, where Zaycon is angling to launch new delivery routes as soon as next month. Zaycon has already cut deals to use five church parking lots in Westchester County, according to Conrad.

To fund the growth spurt, Zaycon is in discussions with multiple investors to raise $50 million, with plans for a marketing push into the Northeast that could include a celebrity chef endorsement.

Thus far Zaycon, whose business is strongest in the Northwest and Southeast, has raised about $13 million, mostly from angel investors including five McDonald’s franchisees.

Lately, food retailers like Walmart, Amazon and Aldi have been spending big to ramp up their home-delivery business. But Zaycon is betting that for many customers, its low prices will trump convenience.

Zaycon’s prices are 40 to 50 percent less than traditional supermarkets and warehouse clubs. Zaycon charges $1.39 a pound for chicken breasts, its No. 1 seller. Sam’s Club, by comparison, charges about $2.30 a pound, according to its Web site.

The eight 8-year-old company is on track to reach $36 million in revenues this year up, 7 percent from 2016, growing mostly by word of mouth.

“We’ve been around longer than Blue Apron, but no one’s heard of us,” Conrad said.

About 220,000 customers nationwide use Zaycon regularly — a number that Conrad thinks could eventually grow to 2 million. Zaycon’s clients, who spend an average of $600 a year on its site, used to get their meat mostly at traditional supermarkets and warehouse clubs, he said.

Still, some critics have said the rock-bottom prices aren’t for nothing.

“If you are single or have a small family and either don’t have a freezer or don’t have anyone to split an order with, Zaycon’s probably not for you,” according to Frugal Food blog.

Another food blogger, Saving Freak, wrote that the “real pain here is prepping 40 pounds of chicken” to put into the freezer, which took about 45 minutes.