HACCP24 | Overview

Product recalls, factory closures, hygiene scandals… every fourth restaurant fails the hygiene test. How can food retailers, caterers, bakeries or nursing homes better protect themselves against the serious consequences of having less than satisfactory hygiene?

Only with regular hygienic controls can food safety be guaranteed. This is why such checks are compulsory throughout the EU for all companies that work with food - whether hotels, fast food joints or restaurants.

In order to simplify the hygiene controls and their corresponding documentation, we have developed HACCP24, an intuitive, customer-oriented software program. With our digital quality management system, the daily controls can be implemented quickly and easily, from cold chain to the food’s presentation/display.

Every restaurateur, food retailer, butcher or baker, every hospital, school, and daycare center is faced with the challenge of complying with the HACCP guidelines. They must go along with the HACCP(Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point) approach, critical control points, and inspection intervals to ensure that the food is safe. A typical control would be, for example, checking on refrigeration temperatures or cleaning the worktops in a kitchen.

Documenting such things, among others, has been done almost exclusively paper, believe it or not. This, of course, has the disadvantage of being very time-consuming. The lists are often not filled in properly by the staff and there is no possibility of a thorough evaluation or any traceability. In addition, a mountain of paperwork is created that needs to be stored for up to 10 years for security in the case of audits or governmental controls. For example: Each branch of each hotel chain fills up one ring binder with documentation per month. You can see the issue here.

Another big risk: Anything that is not documented is not considered in the eyes of the law as if it had never been done in the first place! Hygienic controls are often carried out by the authorities unannounced and punished severely with increasing frequency. A hygiene check that doesn't go well can have serious consequences for a company - ranging from fines to the loss of the company’s reputation to closure of operations.

With our HACCP24 software, everyone from the corner baker to a large 5-star hotel can meet the legal requirements more efficiently and effectively than before. This saves time and money, increases the quality, and minimizes the risk of ruining the company's reputation due to poor hygiene standards, or even a threat of closure.

With around 600 customer contacts across a wide range of industries, extensive cooperation agreements, and ongoing tests for large customers, we have been able to lay down the foundations for sustainable growth. Our intuitive, easy-to-use software has already been successfully implemented in bakeries, in hotels such as the 5-star premium hotel "Pulmann Berlin Schweizer Hof", in food retailers, and in the catering industry.

By the end of the year, our goal is to make further gains on our leadership position in the German market, to initiate the expansion abroad, as well as becoming profitable. To achieve this aim, we offer you, as a Companist, the opportunity to participate in our company. Despite the extremely promising customer pipeline and the positive sales forecast, we are striving to broaden our technical lead and grow at a faster pace through targeted sales and marketing campaigns.

HACCP stands for "Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points" and is a system of performing controls that are required by law for every company that handles or processes food. In practice, it means that daily hygiene checks, temperature measurements, and cleaning procedures are carried out in the form of signed lists (until now on paper) when goods are accepted.

HACCP24 is a web-based analysis tool (and app) that simplifies these controls and their corresponding documentation. It allows law and order to reign in any company, replacing the confusion which is an inherent side-effect of the paperwork.

Over the one-year period of our development, we have worked together with our partners the whole time. The result is a product that is easy to handle and can be tailor-made to suit the needs of every customer.

Both complex hygiene checks and complete quality assurance controls can be carried out with our app. This means that HACCP24 offers our customers a complete solution for quality assurance in the food sector.

In order to reduce the time needed for training our customers on how to use the app as much as possible, we have paid special attention to its usability. This is how it works:

A customer purchases one license per restaurant or per store, etc. The existing checklists can be digitized by the customer by themselves, or by us on request for a fee. Subsequently, they can adapt the app to their needs using our website. Examples of typical checks would be - the temperature control of the refrigerators, cleaning the surfaces one works on, the best before date, or acceptance of delivered goods.

The customer can create as many user profiles as needed. The same applies to setting up additional control points, configuring the dashboard, and enabling automatic notifications. Controls pop up at specific times and have to be checked off the to-do list.

Each test is provided with a time stamp and is clearly identifiable thanks to the user name. The examiner only sees the relevant tests. This allows for simplicity and a clear overview.

In the backend, which is accessible via a web browser, the checks can then be viewed in more detail, worked on further, and most importantly perhaps, analyzed. Automatic notifications and early warning systems can also be set up here.

All this means that each test is faster, is documented seamlessly and can be analyzed from anywhere in the entire system. The elimination of the handwritten paper lists as well as in the expansive quality control system is very cost-saving. This is partially due to the fact that the control center only intervenes when problems arise.

Our business model is based on a licensing model in which licenses are not tied to the number of users or devices, but to locations, e.g., a single bakery outlet.

For a monthly license fee per location, the customer can make full use of our app for each location. In most cases, we set up the program based on the customer’s approach to the HACCP. Every customer has their own checklists that can vary greatly due to the different requirements of each federal states in Germany. This is why we charge for the set-up fee. The app itself can be installed free of charge.

We differentiate between four licenses, depending on the scope of services that are needed. These are: Basic, Business, Pro and Enterprise license.

The basic version is intended mainly for small business with relatively simple reporting requirements. The enterprise license, on the other hand, is used by large customers with tailored pricing levels, dependent on usage. Time-sensitive promotions will allow customers to upgrade their version.

The business model relies fairly heavily on direct sales. We have also had good experiences with cold calling in this area.

We have been successful in Switzerland since the beginning of this year with the help of the provision-based intermediaries. In addition, we have already established attractive cooperations with restaurants, trade associations, cleaning companies and consultants for HACCP and the gastronomy industry.

HACCP24 distinguishes itself from other checklist systems available on the market by being able to display significantly more complex test scenarios. It is fully customizable, has comprehensive user rights, and allows for automatic reports based on specific criteria.

As a result, we have been able to master the challenges associated with documentation in food retailing as well as the challenge in nursing homes, hotels, petrol stations, and restaurants.

In addition, we have successfully integrated automated temperature measurements into our system. This has been done in collaboration with Gesytec (one of the leading manufacturers of systems for wireless data collection and device monitoring).

We will continue to improve on what we have already built in the past year of our development. The plan includes the integration of an image capturing feature as well as comprehensive recording features for stock taking and the receipt of goods. We will also link a labeling system with the app and integrate further temperature sensors, such as food thermometers (for example, temperature controls at the buffet).

With over 600 business contacts, comprehensive sales partners, and running tests with large customers, we have the fundamentals for sustainable growth.

Direct sales

With regard to our direct sales operations, 20 customers are either testing out our product or have already finalized contracts with us. We're preparing a test phase with 30 additional customers.

Among these customers are chains and regions of a well-known super market chain, multiple prestigious hotels and reference properties, international operators of vending machines (vending machines for snacks, drinks, coffee, or cigarettes), system catering, elderly care facilities, hospital cafeterias, bakery chains, and individual restaurants. These customers alone represent potential sales figures of over 10,000 licenses.

Partnerships

Our second largest source of revenue stems from a cooperation with partners, which will also allow them to participate in our revenue. HACCP consultants, gastronomy platforms, gastronomy associations, and manufacturers of cleaning products and HACCP labels are all among these partners. Through our partnership, we've created an efficient channel with which we can access midsize businesses.

Lastly, in terms of our geographic expansion, we've had very good experiences working with distributors through provision-based partnerships. For instance, competent agents sell our product in Switzerland and Austria, which has given us both middle-market customers and access to system catering businesses as well as large conglomerates.

HACCP24 is exclusively active in the B2B area, which means we only target our product towards business customers. The target group ranges from small bakery chains to large gas station operators. At the moment, we're concentrating our efforts on Germany and in the process are covering our business with large customers as well as smaller chains of approximately10 locations.

But it's more than just the gastronomy branch: Food retailers, production, elderly care facilities, bakeries and butchers all have to be inspected and documented according to HACCP standards. That's why we're addressing a large market with thousands of customers in Germany alone.

The application areas of HACCP24 go well beyond the requirements of regulatory controls. The product is a quality management system, which is relevant for many different branches. For instance, cleaning companies are able monitor their service level agreements. And thanks to our app, businesses are able to precisely follow up on whether or not the agreed upon advertising materials, like promotion displays or illuminated advertisements, have actually been placed at their respective locations. 

At first, we'll be focusing on the documentation of regulatory hygiene requirements (HACCP). However, our system is predestined to become a part of an integrated platform for quality management in which data can be bundled together with fully automated measurements as well as manual measurements.

Product

Already reached:Fully functional and field-tested tool, optimized web version for Google Chrome that's fully customizable, multilingual, and features a comprehensive analysis messaging function as well as user rights. 

The app is compatible with iOS and Android, available in 12 languages, and works on smart phones and tablets. Synchronization takes place immediately.  Increased IT competency and availability through the integration of BIT IT , one of the leading full service IT specialists in Germany.

Outlook: Adding in the image function so that instructions can be visually supported and images can also be stored during inspections (especially for incoming goods department). This also opens up a new market for audits and compliance checks. These can be carried out by adding automated measurements and integrating an immersion thermometer. 

Sales and distribution

Already reached: Over 600 customer contacts, 28 active customers (test or contract), 30 additional customers preparing for a test. Among those preparing for a test are a leading grocery retailer, an international hotel group, elderly care facilities, restaurants, and system catering. We were able to acquire multiple large partners, including HACCP consultants, gastronomy platforms, industry associations, producers of cleaning agents, and cleaning companies. 

Outlook: After the evaluation of a one-to-three month test phase of the different accounts, we believe that we'll acquire confirmations for approximately 2,000 licenses (locations). With appropriate funding, we plan on strengthening the direct sales and the customer support team. Furthermore, through social networks, like Facebook, and search engine optimization measures, we will improve our searchability through our customer's Google search and thereby increase our prominence .Finally; we're going to invest in the establishment of a European sales network.

The funds from the equity-based crowdfunding campaign are to be initially used to keep our business operations afloat during the time period between the test phase of major customers and the finalization of their contracts with us. What's more, with such a round of financing we have the chance to pursue a faster growth strategy.

Here in Germany, we want to increase our recognition through online marketing and achieve a market-leading position through our increased sales activities. Ultimately, we plan on expanding our presence in Switzerland and Austria and are also preparing for operations in target countries, like the UK and Spain.

Investment phase I: Starting at €100,000

Once this investment phase is reached, we intend to create a customer relationship management (CRM) and IT infrastructure that is solid and scalable in order to help us process the upcoming large customer orders. To this end, we'll also incorporate external partners.

Investment phase II: €300,000

In addition to the measures from phase I, we plan on more than €300,000 in total investments and an increase in marketing investments. Here, we are particularly referring to online marketing, distribution materials for direct sales, and more personnel for cold calls (direct contact with new, potential clients with whom we have no prior contact). To this end, we're currently in talks with relevant sales partners. What's more, we also plan on integrating additional temperature sensors, like thermometers for food. This move would help allow us to offer our customers everything from one source and create a clear competitive advantage.

Investment phase III: €500,000

If we reach our maximum investment threshold, we plan on more rapidly expanding our international sales operations. Here the target markets include German-speaking Europe as well as the UK and Spain.

In order to effectively operate within these markets, we'll need an international sales team and multilingual customer support teams. Here, our goal is to hire a sales worker for the target markets of the UK and Spain and furthermore expand our CRM team in Hamburg via an external call center, which will guarantee 24/7 customer support.

Publicity

Do you know any restaurant owners, grocery retailers, or product operations that are grappling with manual audits? Are you affected yourself? 

Contact us or put us in touch with your partners; with HACCP24, carrying out regulatory obligations for documentation is a cinch!

Network

We're always on the lookout for strategic partnerships through which we can further increase the prominence of HACCP 24. The activation of our own network often reveals unexpected potential.

Taking HACCP to the world

Given that hygiene in the gastronomic and grocery retail sector continues to further enter the conscious of many, we're operating a blog on our website and are very active on Twitter. Here, we look forward to any likes, shared content or positive comments you may be able to provide. And of course, it's a big help to spread the news about our equity-based crowdfunding campaign as much as possible.

Nominated for the Gastrovision Advancement Award 2017

As one of just 10 finalists, we were nominated for the advancement award, Gastrovision 2017 and had the opportunity to present our product in front of a top-notch jury. Mario Pick from the Novum Hotel Group and Erik Altenhofen, of the Hilton Group, were both present. The jury was particularly impressed by the high, practical relevance of the product, its easy and intuitive use as well as our innovative control center.