Over the years, but especially since working from home has become more of the norm, home delivery of food products has experienced a rapid rise in popularity. The frozen food market has seen considerable growth and is set to reach $432.55 billion by 2030 — a significant portion of which is the home delivery market.

Busy lifestyles and a desire for a wider variety of food have led people to seek the services of several home-delivery options that can deliver everything from meat to vegetables right to their door. However, the traditional direct-to-consumer frozen food market has one major downside: most are limited to one supplier per box.

Ruben Cortez, the entrepreneur behind Frozen Logistics, saw an opportunity to expand the frozen food delivery business and solve a number of pain points in the direct-to-consumer space. Cortez brings his years of experience in the entrepreneurial, technology, investment, and real estate spaces to change the traditional direct-to-consumer frozen food delivery space.

Cortez has recently unveiled Delivered Cold, a revolutionary new direct-to-consumer option that allows shoppers to add products from multiple different sellers in the same box, solving what he sees as an obvious issue with the traditional market. “We’re giving customers more options to fill their box with a variety of items they may not find elsewhere with this option,” he says, “making it easier to check out new products without a large cost commitment.”

Different from the competition

Many competing home delivery food companies often only cater to one type of consumer, whether by offering vegan options, ready-to-serve meals, or specialty products. On the other hand, Delivered Cold’s approach to home delivery, is far more streamlined.

“We are setting out to shake up an industry in need of disruption,” says Cortez. The way Delivered Cold operates is simply not possible in other marketplaces because, more often than not, sellers are left to fulfill their own product orders directly. “If a consumer buys three different items from three different sellers, the consumer will get three different boxes,” Cortez explains.

Delivered Cold focuses on empowering the small producer by eliminating the complex self-fulfillment requirement. Because Frozen Logistics operates its own cold storage facility where various products are stored, consumers can order directly from the Delivered Cold freezer, freeing up the producers to do what they do best: produce food products.

“Consumers can shop our freezers directly and access products from all of the incredible farmers, ranchers, and other producers we work with,” says Cortez.

Since the Delivered Cold approach cuts out the middleman, costly and complicated food distribution networks are simplified. By reducing touchpoints in the supply chain, consumers can count on less spoiled food and sellers have another avenue to get their products to consumers.

The sustainability factor

According to recent studies, sustainability is one of the most important factors when consumers choose a company, whether buying food or other products. In recent years, the focus on climate change has influenced every market globally, and it behooves a company to make sustainable practices a cornerstone of their service platforms.

Delivered Cold is built around a sustainability model that compresses the cold delivery supply chain required to get products from the freezer to the consumer. Their approach leads to reduced transportation costs, reduced facility requirements, and reduced material waste.

According to Cortez, Delivered Cold is dedicated to using recyclable and recycled materials throughout the shipping process. It remains cognizant of the impact of its less-than-recyclable materials that are required to get frozen products to the customer. “We plant a tree for every box we ship,” he says. “This helps offset the negative impact of materials that are not entirely sustainable but are necessary for the process.”

Additionally, the company has approached the issue of excess space in packaging that can lead to product thawing, which can cause products to arrive to the consumer in less-than-pristine condition. Traditionally, companies would fill these empty spaces with plastic or paper. Delivered Cold’s approach is decidedly technology-informed.

“Our sophisticated algorithm tracks the available space in each box as consumers shop,” Cortez explains. “We then offer appropriate products to the consumer at competitive and affordable prices, letting us fill each box with as much product as possible.” By maximizing the product-to-packaging ratio, overall waste is reduced.

Moreover, Cortez and his team also produce their own dry ice, further separating the company apart from the competition. The dry ice production process is very energy-intensive, but producing dry ice in the same facility where boxes are packaged with products means they reduce wasted dry ice which, in turn, means less energy goes into each box. By producing dry ice in-house, Delivered Cold is furthering its pledge to sustainable practices.

Growing in 2024

Delivered Cold has soft-launched as of November and will be beginning the next year with over 30 sellers. The company also hopes to host over 100 sellers by the end of 2024 — shipping over 10,000 boxes of a variety of products to consumers by December.

By merging technology, innovations, and a dedicated focus on sustainability, Delivered Cold gives customers what they want and makes shopping for a variety of products easy and accessible.