Sustainability from production to supply

Felfel ensures excellent catering in the workplace Switzerland-wide. The family-owned company uses CNG-Iveco as it attaches great importance to sustainability.

The idea for Felfel’s smart food fridge was born back in 2014 and provides delicacies at the workplace. Source: Felfel

Life is too short for mediocre food – and that applies at the workplace, too. This is the idea behind Felfel. That’s why the multi-award-winning start-up has set itself the goal of supplying Swiss offices with food as if from their favourite restaurant. All you need is a Felfel fridge in which the delicacies, snacks, drinks or a varied breakfast are kept fresh until they are consumed. The company now has more than twelve local partner chefs who ensure variety and new culinary delights.

Passionately committed to fine food and greater sustainability, the fast-growing family-run company currently employs more than 100 staff at its two locations in Lausanne and Zurich, and it has various partners throughout Switzerland, too. It tries to keep its ecological footprint as small as possible and for this reason takes sustainability into account in several dimensions. Felfel works with local small and family businesses to deliver and promote the best regional products.

Incidentally, the family business run by founder Emanuel Steiner and co-CEO Anna Grassler also offers Gavetti coffee machines for real barista coffee enjoyment at the workplace in addition to the legendary Felfel refrigerators. Source: Felfel

Directed by founder Emanuel Steiner and co-CEO Anna Grassler, the company attaches great importance to fair wages and long-term partnerships. And the food that ends up in the fridge is always categorised as “healthy.” To ensure that resources are used as sparingly as possible, the menus are packed into recyclable containers and the Felfel refrigerators are driven to their locations in an Iveco with CNG drive. Thanks to the latter, the truck it is not just significantly quieter: it also emits up to 25% less CO₂ than other combustion engines. And its level of nitrogen oxide emissions (NO_x) is as much as 95% lower. If you fill it up with biogas, the Iveco is almost CO₂-neutral.

Lukas (left) and Luka from Felfel’s OPS team prepare a refrigerator for transport in the CNG Iveco. Source: CNG-Mobility.ch

Luka and Lukas of the OPS team at Felfel – the interface for organizing and monitoring all operational logistics processes – are currently tying up a new Felfel fridge so that no damage is done to the precious piece of equipment with its large glass pane and computer display on the side. Yet another Swiss office will soon be able to enjoy fine food instead of the same of department store salad. As Lukas is about to drive off, he says: “The two CNG-Iveco run perfectly.” And colleague Luka mischievously adds: “Sometimes you want that little bit more torque, but on the other hand these trucks are very sustainable.”

A clever choice – which company founder and co-CEO Emanuel Steiner explains as follows: “It was very important to us – especially to our team – to take a step in the right direction in terms of sustainability in the fleet and gain experience of different drive technologies so that we can later convert our entire fleet.” And he adds: “For us, the CNG drive was the right technology for long distances with a heavy load because we can’t afford to take longer electrical charging breaks during the working day.”

One of the two CNG-powered Iveco vehicles in use for Felfel. Source: CNG-Mobility.ch

Mr. Steiner, which CNG vehicles have you now opted for and how many are you using in total?
Emanuel Steiner, Co-CEO and Founder of Felfel: An Iveco 35S14 G Daily CNG with bridge, top and lifting platform and an Iveco 35S14 G Daily CNG with van body.

How have you fared with CNG vehicles and how satisfied are you with them?
We’re very satisfied. Since we acquired them in 2018, the vehicles have proven their worth and the situation in terms of filling station availability has improved. We’ve been virtually everywhere in Switzerland in them, and we’ve even had customers proactively asking us about them.

A Felfel refrigerator arrives at its new home – some 600 companies across Switzerland now rely on the sustainable and delicious menus at their workplaces. Source: CNG-Mobility.ch

Do you try to fill up with only biogas where possible to ensure virtually carbon-neutral transportation?
Yes, we only use biogas for the CNG vehicle.
With your commitment to the environment, you’re a role model. How has the response been among customers, employees and partners, for example?
Great – our employees in particular are very proud of what we’re doing. We have a relatively young team and sustainability is very important to them.

Are you planning to make further investments in sustainable mobility in the future? If so, what are the plans in this regard?
Yes, of course! We’ve set ourselves the goal of eliminating the need to purchase any more conventional vehicles (petrol/diesel) and gradually replacing our fleet of around 25 vehicles. It will be a mix of CNG and purely electric, depending on the area of use. (jas, 19 July 2022)