Pod taps demand for fresh and healthy
"By 6:30 am they are chopping, slicing and dicing all the produce from Covent Garden," explains Megan Ellis, their marketing director.
Pod's success as a business boils down to one word - health. Never before have Londoners been so health-conscious, and Pod taps into this demand with a highly innovative range of fast food and drink.
Take their Blitzes (one example pictured below), a clever product where the customer can see the fresh ingredients that are then blitzed into a juice behind the counter:
Pod's apple, spinach, cucumber and fruit Blitz
Or their Slow Burner Salad, stuffed with pearl barley, lentils, nuts, vegetables, herbs and a sprinkle of Turkish cheese. "A good one for the 4 o'clock slump and not needing to reach for the Kit Kat," says Meg.
Pod's Slow Burner Salad box
The company, established in 2005, relies on Covent Garden Supply in the Market for their deliveries.
"The fact that we can access high quality ingredients from New Covent Garden Market fresh everyday is incredibly important to our business," says Meg.
Pod salad box
Pod sugar snap and edamame snack pots
The menu changes with the seasons and food fashion. Pod was one of the first food businesses to serve porridge to go. Now, in a reflection of current trends, they also offer Super Seed Hot Drinking Oats, with finely milled oats, agave, milk and super seeds.
"It's all thought through," explains Meg. "We are surrounded by the global food trends that exist in this city. It really helps us to design - we take London food trends and turn them into daily recipes that we can all enjoy."
Quality fresh produce is therefore the foundation of the Pod menu. The team at each branch prepares most dishes from scratch, such as the nori seaweed wraps, salads and baguettes pictured below:
"Our vision is to enable people to live healthier lives," says Meg. Judging by the queues at the branch I visited, their aims chime with the appetites of hungry Londoners.
Source: New Covent Garden Market