From humble kitchen to $55m factory – the rapid rise of My Muscle Chef

Australian food tech start-up success story My Muscle Chef has unveiled its $55 million production facility in Sydney’s west.

It marks a lofty new milestone for the brand, which in nine years has gone from a humble kitchen to this new 10,000sqm factory producing 1.2 million fresh meals a week.

My Muscle Chef is a direct-to-consumer e-commerce and retail FMCG business that sells high-quality and ready-made meals and is particularly popular among fitness enthusiasts and bodybuilders.

“We’re so proud of the evolution over the past nine years,” chief executive officer Tushar Menon said.

“I’m particularly proud that we are continuing to invest in Western Sydney, where I grew up and where I still call home, providing a wide variety of employment opportunities and career paths to the community, and boosting the local economy.”

My Muscle Chef CEO Tushar Menon said the brand’s expansion has been rapid. Picture: Supplied

The new site in Yennora has the capacity to house a 600-strong workforce comprising chefs, food tech specialists, quality assurance, general operations, finance, research and development, marketing, and software engineering.

In addition, the state-of-the-art facility includes a gym for employees – naturally.

In 2018, the company undertook detailed analysis and research into customer behaviours and purchasing motivations.

That led to a broadening of My Muscle Chef’s target market from gym-goers to everyday Australians in search of nutritional and easy meals, Mr Menon said.

The result of that was significant growth in turnover from $27 million a year to about $200 million, he revealed.

The new facility naturally includes a fully kitted-out gym for employees. Picture: Supplied

Completion of the new facility will allow the company to build on that success and is an example of best practices in food manufacturing and technology, he said.

My Muscle Chef sources 70 tonnes of protein and 92 tonnes of vegetables from 200 Australian growers each week.

That volume is set to grow as production capacity increases and the product range, which includes fresh meals, snacks, and drinks, expands.

The weekly production capacity has doubled to 1.2 million meals thanks to the new facility. Picture: Supplied

Nick Love, chief customer officer at My Muscle Chef, said the rapid evolution of the brand hasn’t come at the expense of its original philosophy.

“Customer loyalty is incredibly important to us, and we are constantly diversifying our product offering to ensure we are meeting their needs,” Mr Love said.

“Whether they’re looking to fuel before a workout, provide a nutritional meal for their families, or lose weight, our new facility at Yennora enables us to cater to the growing demand for fresh, high protein, healthy meals, snacks and drinks.”