Holloway Head Service Station is the first forecourt to install an in store self-service machine which turns a whole pineapple into ready- to-eat chunks in 15 seconds.
Director Danny Ahmed says that the unit is turning over around £150 a day at his Birmingham city centre Gulf forecourt, giving him a 60% profit on return. He now wants to install another Isla branded machine from iSqueeze at his other site at Wednesbury, in Staffordshire.
Danny sells the approximate 600g boxes of pineapple for £3.99, and includes sticks to make the fruit convenient to eat on the move. It is cheaper for consumers to buy than prepared chilled versions, he says, and also is popular with gym goers and visitors to the city because of its novelty.
“It’s 100% fresh and is a great addition to the store, complementing the fresh juice iSqueeze machine we already had,” says Danny. “It’s also less of a risk for us selling fresh pineapple from the fridge with all of the potential wastage,” he adds.
And with a continual stock of fresh pineapples back of store – with deliveries from iSqueeze every other day – the new addition has given the unexpected benefit of creating a pleasant pineapple aroma in the store. “It is like having a natural air freshener,” laughs Danny.
The pineapple slicing machine, which has a list price of £17,500, can be set to cut slices, chunks or fingers. It first removes the crown of the fruit, followed by the peel and the core, before placing the fruit into a fully recyclable cardboard box. Danny says that some customers, not wanting the faff of preparing pineapple themselves, are taking the boxes to put in their fridge at home to eat later.
And iSqueeze, which wants to roll out the machines across the foreourt sector, says that the concept gives operators a fun way of supplying the exotic fruit, which because of its limited life in a prepared chilled format might not have been accessible to them before.
Currently the pineapple machines are only available at a handful of sites – convenience stores and Danny’s forecourt. But iSqueeze founder Elias Ebert says that “a lot of conversations” are going on for further listings. ”We had a soft launch and are now just coming out of the testing phase. I have no doubt that other forecourt operators will have the machine before too long,” he says.
