CTC #16 - Interview with Kayli Dale, founder of Friendlier

Hi there,

Welcome to a special issue of Climate Tech Canada featuring Kayli Dale, co-founder and CEO of reusable packaging startup Friendlier. I met up with Kayli to learn more about her experience founding a circular startup, their mission to replace single-use packaging, and how they grew their business from just the two co-founders working nights and weekends to a team of 15 in under a year!

Let me know what you think about this new format in the comments, and look for Friendlier’s resuable packaging the next time you’re picking up food.

You may have seen their distinct blue containers at a restaurant or grocery store near you. And, if you haven’t yet, you probably will soon. Guelph-based Friendlier is aiming to be the reusable packaging company, with a data-driven platform and turn-key solution for food businesses. 

I came across Friendlier for the first time as a customer when a restaurant down the street posted on Instagram that they were now offering to-go meals in Friendlier’s reusable packaging. I was stoked to try out an alternative as ending up with a bunch of garbage (or plastic containers that are unlikely to be recycled) for a single meal has always been a pain point when it comes to ordering food.

The whole process ended up being even better than I expected. Here’s how Friendlier works in a nutshell:

Order or pick up your food in a reusable container, whether it’s offered on an opt-in basis or by default. When you choose Friendlier’s option, a deposit for the container is included in your bill (similar to the deposit system for beer cans) and you take home your food in their container.

After you’ve finished your meal, scan the QR code printed on the container to claim your deposit. You can then drop the container off at the nearest return bin. For us, this meant dropping it off the next time we were at the same restaurant (which also encouraged us to be repeat customers). 

Friendlier’s logistics then kick into action. The company collects the used containers while dropping off fresh ones, and brings them to one of their facilities to be cleaned, sanitized and ready to be reused. The deposit is returned to you 1-2 weeks later either via e-transfer or with the option to donate it to charity.

It was a great experience as a customer, one that left me excited to never see another single-use container again. I met up with Kayli Dale, the CEO of Friendlier, to learn more about where the business came from, how it all works behind the scenes, and what it's like founding a circular startup.

Where it all began

Kayli’s journey to found Friendlier started during her undergrad at the University of Waterloo. Over the course of several co-op placements in manufacturing she saw first-hand how much waste we are producing, particularly for packaging. But it wasn’t until a term spent abroad in Sweden that the pair saw the principles of a circular economy in practice - and a potential solution. 

Inspired, Kayli and her friend Jacquie Hutchings founded Friendlier in 2019 and launched their first pilot with a restaurant in Guelph, ON in November of 2020. Since then, the company has grown rapidly. Their circular model is now capitalizing on the desire to do more for sustainability from businesses and consumers alike that was put on hold during COVID.

Tell me about the growth you’ve seen with Friendlier. What kind of traction are you seeing and how has COVID impacted things?

“Growth has been immense. We had more sales in Q1 than in all of 2021. It really grew at the beginning of last summer, and we started hiring to support the processing, the physical piece of it. We started fundraising and closed some initial funding, which also allowed us to grow our tech team.”

“The growth is really driven by just a sheer need for help. Jacquie and I were doing everything - we were doing the physical component, logistics, cleaning on the weekends and evenings, and running the business during the day.”

The team grew from the two co-founders to a team of 15 in the span of just a few months last summer. And while COVID presented a whole new set of hurdles, the pair pivoted quickly and often in order to keep moving forward.

“We’ve seen a lot of fluctuation, obviously a lot of impact from the pandemic. There was a little dance between different markets as things were opening and closing with the pandemic. We really focused on those that were open regardless of COVID or not. Now, as different markets are opening up, we’re expanding into corporate food services (for example, cafeterias), as well as larger organizations. We just launched a pilot with Loblaws, which was big for us.”

Not only did Friendlier launch their pilot program with Loblaws in June of this year, they also completed pilots to provide reusable packaging at the Sleeman Centre stadium in Guelph and through SkipTheDishes.

“People are really ready to go on the sustainability front, especially coming out of the pandemic. The focus shifted away from sustainability targets to just ‘how do we survive’, but now it's coming back in a big way.” 

The federal government’s ban on single-use plastic is also providing tailwinds, as businesses look to move away from single-use products to alternatives. While some critics say the ban doesn’t go far enough, it’s tackling the exact kinds of single-use packaging that Friendlier replaces.

What resonates when you speak with customers? I would imagine that cost is a major concern in the food industry?

“Cost is always a big focus for food service, and we built our system to tackle that. If it's not feasible, it's not going to make the impact we’re trying to make. So we’ve been able to meet the same kind of cost as single-use packaging.”

“There are a lot of other benefits too. Single-use packaging, it’s essentially garbage [laughs]. It’s a means to an end, it’s something they have to buy and have to use. We’ve been able to instill a lot of value in our packaging. For example, customer loyalty - you have this container from the restaurant in your house and it reminds you ‘hey that was really great, we should go back’.”

“It also created a lot of media attention for these businesses. People are seeking them out because they heard about the program, and some businesses have been winning sustainability awards - it’s great.”

That’s fantastic! And what about the physical side of things, the collection and cleaning of the containers? How are you thinking about that as you scale?

“For sanitation we have two facilities, one in Ottawa and one in Guelph. Returns get routed to one of those depending on where the business is located. It’s definitely the most labour intensive part. Our goal is to partner or automate those systems that are more tedious.” 

“For logistics we do some of our own and use some partners who do delivery and pickup, similar to traditional single-use packaging. But instead of empty trucks at the end of the day, it's full of returns.”

“With the tracking technology through our deposit system, we have a lot of insights into the system itself.”

Can you tell us more about those insights and how you manage the inventory that’s out there with customers?

“Managing inventory out in the wild is really supported by our technology. We’re able to track the entire journey of the container - how many are in our facility, how many are out with customers, how many are with users. The more data we’re getting, the more we can pull and optimize from that.”

The data comes from the QR codes on every container, allowing Friendlier to track the containers at every stage. But it also means they can quantify the impact with a high level of accuracy.

“We’re able to generate lots of interesting data on the system and impact data for our businesses. How much waste they saved, emissions, water - stats that you don't always get from other sustainability programs.”

And what about the containers themselves? Is that something you manufacture?

“There’s an awesome organization we work with to source our packaging, and they minimize all the energy that goes into producing them. We only have to reuse it once to be better than a single-use container.”

Their containers are made in Ontario and require 24% less energy to produce than standard single-use packaging. These energy savings don’t just show up once, but are compounded with every reuse.

“If you’re looking at a glass jar, you might need to use it more than 100 times [to break even on energy use]. So some of these things aren’t as good as they might seem. We’re focused on hitting that threshold of reuse.”

What role has the local startup or climate tech ecosystem around you played in your journey? 

“We’ve been involved in some entrepreneurial programs, for example we participated in Next 36 last summer. Everywhere there is a rise of climate or sustainability focused companies, and so there’s sustainability communities within those entrepreneurship orgs as well.”

“A big one we’ve tapped into is Innovation Guelph and COIL (Circular Opportunity Innovation Launchpad). It’s been an awesome support for us. We were also part of the Seeding Our Food Future program - they helped us get on our feet, and now we’re working on a co-lab challenge with them. They’re an awesome resource for circular economy businesses. There’s lots of entrepreneurship programs, but something like this for a circular economy hasn’t existed up to this point in Canada.”

Looking ahead, what are the main goals for Friendlier over the next year or two?

“We’ve been in a big scale-up phase - 2022 was off to a running start, and we’re now shifting our focus. We started with independent businesses, and we still love working with independent businesses, but now we’re starting to look at other markets that are opening up. Food service in higher education, venues - we just ran a pilot project with the Sleeman stadium here in Guelph - areas we haven’t been able to see our product in action. We always imagined it would do great there, and so we’re starting to get those applications rolling.”

“We’re also working towards a raise right now. A lot of it is based off of demand right now, and we’re looking to expand to scale up for these larger companies. The race against single-use is on and it’s urgent. Starbucks is moving away from single-use packaging by 2025 - not 2050, we’re talking the next few years. We’re continuing to push forward and we know the market is ready for it.”

If everything goes amazing - your ideal scenarios all come to life - what does that look like?

“We want to be the reusable packaging company. We believe the reusable system can be as robust and efficient as the current single-use solutions. The way we’ve developed is to be versatile. Not just a takeout container company or a reusable cup company, but really a facilitator of reuse. Whether facilitating between businesses and their customers or between businesses, we want to be that facilitator for the packaging market in general.”

Anything else you want to share with the people reading this?

“There’s a big need to support these types of businesses. Everyone expresses that they’re happy to see it, and we need action behind those words. Whether it’s from the investment perspective, or on a customer level - expressing to companies and brands you support that you want this - that’s what makes or breaks it for a company like us. The consumer’s reaction and how supportive they are. Vocalize and taking action on the companies you see doing good in the world.”

Thanks for reading and we’ll be back next week with the regular edition!

Justin