Our pricing philosophy

Fuelbetter offers a single product: dietitian-tailored, nutritionally complete, freshly prepared chilled meals delivered daily to every member of the family. Just heat them up, and enjoy.

But we break the price for that product into two parts:

• A part that stays fixed no matter how much you consume, plus

  
  

• A part that varies daily based on how much you consume.

This is exactly how your electricity company charges for its service: you pay a “standing charge” (a fixed price per day), plus a charge that varies based on the electricity you actually consume.

Why do we charge like an electrical utility?

We do it to make sure our financial interests as a food company are aligned with your long-term health.

Let’s dive deeper.

TODAY’S FOOD PRICING CONVENTION

When it comes to food, the convention you’re used to is paying a single price - not a price split into two parts.

You pay a single £ price per unit of food you order – £1.25 for a Gregg’s Vegan Sausage Roll, £4.25 for a Tesco Chicken Tikka Masala ready meal, £10.45 for a Pret-a-Manger Butternut Meze Super Plate, £15.95 for a PizzaExpress Goat's Cheese & Beetroot Buddha Bowl, and so on.

With this pricing convention, the company selling you food has just two ways to make a profit: (1) by increasing the number of units it sells, or (2) by increasing the profit per unit.

(1) Increasing the number of units sold

By selling more units, the company can cover all the costs it incurred to bring that food to you. So the company’s incentive is to get you to eat more and more – even if that’s not in the best interests of your health.

This has led to an arms race between food companies, each employing food scientists and marketers to make their product more super-craveable than their competitors.

(2) Increasing the profit per unit

A food company can do this by either (a) increasing price of a product or (b) reducing the quality of its ingredients.  Increasing a price is hard. So the company is forced to use the lowest possible quality of ingredients it possibly can while still keeping the product super-craveable.

The result

Today’s food pricing convention is comfortably familiar, but comes it comes with a big hidden cost.

Instead of incentivizing food companies to help you eat your healthiest every day, it incentivizes them to get you to eat more food made with low quality ingredients.

As a result, wherever you go – a grocery store, a restaurant, or UberEats – the food environment is awash with food choices mis-aligned with your long-term health.

Luckily, there’s an alternative.

A BETTER PRICING PHILOSOPHY

The better alternative is to price like an electrical utility company.

Imagine you paid your favourite grocery store a fixed “standing charge”, which completely covered all the costs they’ve incurred to make food available to you, plus the profit they need to keep growing and serving more customers.

This would have three amazing effects:

1. First, just as your electricity company has zero incentive to sell you more electricity, your grocer would not be under any pressure to sell you more food – no pressure to get you to eat more. After all, their costs fully covered by the "standing charge". So they could now take a real interest in providing you just the food that's actually right for you and your family’s long-term health.

   
   

2. Second, just as your electricity company has zero incentive to reduce the quality of its electricity, your grocer would not be under any pressure to reduce the quality of food it supplies you. Instead, they could take a real interest in finding the best quality ingredients for you based on your family’s budget.

   
   

3. Third, although the “standing charge” covers all the grocer's cost, they can’t be complacent and take you for granted. If they do, you’ll take your hard earned money elsewhere – just like you do now when you’re unhappy with your electricity company.

   
   

The end result is a food company that’s actually aligned with you and your family’s long-term health.

FUELBETTER’S PRICING

So that’s why Fuelbetter sells a single product, but breaks its pricing into two parts, like a utility.

We want to ensure that, at our core, our financial incentives are aligned with your long-term health.

Join us.