Customer Story:
Delifresh

Industry

Food and drink delivery
Distribution

Business Size

Small

Product

Access MaxOptra

Challenge

When COVID-19 forced Delifresh's restaurant customers to close, the business needed to pivot rapidly from B2B to B2C home delivery.

Fixed routes were no longer applicable, and planning time spiralled, with the team planning until midnight and loading vans at 6am.

Despite thousands of new orders coming in, Delifresh had to limit fulfilment because the manual workload was unmanageable.

Approach

Delifresh contacted Access MaxOptra and were live on a free trial within one hour, and fully implemented within 12 hours.

The dynamic routing system replaced fixed routes with flexible, optimised daily planning, enabling the team to handle a high volume of variable home delivery addresses efficiently and at speed.

Results

Deliveries fulfilled increased by 33% - from 560 fixed restaurant routes to 750 dynamic home deliveries.
The freed-up capacity also allowed Delifresh to support NHS workers at the Nightingale Hospital during the pandemic.
The rapid implementation demonstrated how quickly route optimisation can transform operations in a crisis.

The History of Delifresh

Established in 2002, Delifresh has built its reputation on close, lasting relationships with customers across the UK.

Its customer base reflects the full diversity of the food world, spanning Michelin-starred restaurants, busy hotel kitchens, inventive bars, flexible catering operations, major stadium venues, and leading universities. That range keeps Delifresh focused on delivering dynamic, forward-thinking solutions.

At the core of the business are three dedicated development kitchens, spaces where products are shaped and refined through ongoing collaboration with customers and supply partners alike.

From menu planning to hands-on team sessions, Delifresh prides itself on offering a wide range of products and services tailored to each customer's specific needs.

The result is a business where quality, innovation, and a genuine passion for food run through every part of what it does.

Challenges

Previously, Delifresh’s customer base were mainly restaurants, operating on a fixed route basis. However, due to the COVID-19 outbreak, many of their loyal customers were having to close their businesses, leaving Delifresh in a challenging situation.

Delifresh pride themselves on innovation, and so adapted to this situation; pivoting from B2B to B2C.

However, they quickly realised that this was a significant challenge. Fixed routes were no longer applicable and planning hours suddenly increased. This meant that Delifresh were planning until midnight, and then having to load vans at 6am the next morning.

Despite receiving thousands of orders from new customers, Delifresh were having to limit the amount of orders they could fulfil due to this unmanageable workload.

Solution

Delifresh had previously spoken to Access MaxOptra, and had also heard great things from other customers in the same industry. When they began facing significant challenges, they didn’t hesitate to get in touch.

Access MaxOptra were able to get Delifresh up and running with a free trial within an hour, and fully implemented in only 12 hours; enabling Delifresh to adapt to their new B2C strategy almost immediately.

With the help of Access MaxOptra, Delifresh were suddenly able to plan 700 orders a minute – freeing up considerable time.

Delifresh quickly saw results, with deliveries they could fulfill increasing by 33% – from 560 restaurant deliveries on fixed routes, to 750 home deliveries with no fixed route.

This additional capacity meant that Delifresh were also able to support the community during this difficult time; delivering food parcels to NHS key workers at a variety of locations, including Nightingale Hospital.

They now even have a dedicated website, MyDelifresh, to support individual customers with food and ingredient deliveries during this challenging time. They have promoted themselves on social media, and are now able to take on thousands of orders from customers who need food deliveries during this challenging time.

The Future for Delifresh

Delifresh have had such success with the Access MaxOptra platform, alongside their support and consultancy, services that they are now upgrading to the Mobile App to offer proof of delivery and customer notifications.

Not only will this be highly beneficial for their customers, but it also streamlines Delifresh’s customer support process and offers peace of mind for their drivers.

"The system is so adaptable! If there is some additional information or functionality we'd like, we just call up MaxOptra, and we have it within 20 minutes."