Technology

Picnic Works inks deal with Speedy Eats

August 9, 2022

Picnic Works, an innovator of food automation technology, has inked an $800 million deal with Speedy Eats, a new dining and pickup concept, for the first wave of Picnic Pizza Stations. The initial Picnic stations will be placed in the inaugural Speedy Eats automated kitchens with a projected volume of 5,000 U.S. locations in the next five years, according to a press release.

"Speedy Eats is rethinking food production and delivery and we're thrilled that they chose Picnic to provide the automated pizza equipment that will help them scale, delight customers, and increase profitability," Clayton Wood, CEO of Picnic, said in the release. "We will begin production of their stations in the next few months and look forward to being in all 5,000 Speedy Eats locations in the coming years."

Speedy Eats is a dining and pickup concept that places fully contained drive-thru operations in locations where customers can purchase hot and cold food items at any time of day or night. The company is eyeing over 40,000 potential parking lot locations in the U.S. and plans to incorporate a patent-pending design that allows takeout customers and third-party delivery platforms to roll up and access orders from the convenience of their vehicle. Speedy Eats also plans to open regional kitchen production centers that craft the food to supply the stations.

With projected volumes of 5,000 locations in the next five years, Picnic will begin manufacturing for Speedy Eats in line with location openings starting in 2022, with increased roll out over the next several years.

The Picnic Pizza Station is autonomous and completely customizable for each order — after loading the dough, the Picnic station takes care of applying the sauce, cheese, fresh-cut pepperoni and additional toppings. The finished pizzas are then loaded into the kitchen's ovens for cooking. Each hour, the Picnic station can assemble up to 100 pizzas.