SEATTLE– Seattle-based Picnic™, an innovator of food production technology and Robotics-as-a-Service (RaaS) solutions, announced today that its automated food assembly system has been selected by Centerplate, a leader in live event hospitality, to serve attendees of the world’s largest technology event, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), January 7-10, 2020, at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Centerplate will use and showcase Picnic’s robot, with capabilities of producing up to 300 12-inch customized pizzas an hour, on the CES show floor. Specific location details for Picnic’s robot and where to enjoy its pizza will be revealed at hellopicnic.com, prior to the start of CES 2020.
“Picnic’s distinct culmination of food production customization and throughput, smart data and cloud analytics is quickly resonating with food service operators,” said Clayton Wood, CEO of Picnic. “Our continued relationship with Centerplate illustrates our ability to tailor our offerings to the specific needs of our partners and jointly transform the food experience for their consumers. This is one robot that won’t be a CES exhibitor only showing futuristic concepts; it is already in use in real-world kitchen settings and will only continue to grow its capabilities, as will be seen through Picnic’s delivery of mass customization food production and great-tasting pizza provided to CES attendees.”
Centerplate, providing live event hospitality for more than 115 million guests each year at hundreds of prominent sports, entertainment and convention venues, revealed, in October 2019, that Picnic’s successful pilot was operating at their T-Mobile Park location, home of the Seattle Mariners. In addition to today’s announcement, Centerplate is also using Picnic’s robot to provide all of the pizzas at Enchant® Christmas, the current winter wonderland holiday event, taking place at the stadiumthrough December 29th.
“Picnic’s automated food assembly platform has shown an ability to enhance quality and speed of service for our kitchen operations,” said Steve Pangburn, CEO of Centerplate. “Our initial pilot with Picnic was very positive and their differentiated capabilities are proving beneficial. We look forward to introducing Picnic to the Las Vegas Convention Center in January and helping them scale their technology in an effective way.”
The Picnic platform is initially focused on the production of high-volume, customizable pizzas. However, the company’s technology is applicable to other food categories. “Bun, bowl, tortilla or plate – our automated assembly system is designed for and capable of improving the businesses of many food service segments,” added Wood.
Many U.S. and international food service providers are recognizing that Picnic’s platform offers unique capabilities to address common business-thwarting challenges and pain points. As part of the system’s intelligence, deep learning AI technology continually learns and helps to meet the changing needs of all types of food service operators, keeping them more competitive and protecting their brands.
“Picnic continues to experience increasing interest in our technology and solutions from large chains to ‘mom and pop’ storefronts, and emerging food service venues, such as virtual restaurants and ghost kitchens,” said Wood.
The compact, freestanding system integrates Picnic’s issued U.S. patent and other U.S. and international patent-pending modular, configurable equipment, with its software, cloud and deep learning technology.
The platform only requires a small footprint and the modular, configurable equipment makes it flexible to slip into a wide array of stationary and mobile kitchen formats. It is extremely flexible and painless to set up. It’s safe to work around and only minimal training is required.
Picnic will deliver, install and maintain the system, and provide platform and software updates for a monthly fee with no money upfront. The company can also provide custom design software solutions for operators to integrate with existing point-of-sale and ordering systems.
Companies interested in installing Picnic’s new platform in their food operations can contact the company by visiting hellopicnic.com, emailing info@hellopicnic.com or calling 206.717.3455.
About Picnic
Founded in 2016 Vivid Robotics, Inc., (dba Picnic) (hellopicnic.com), has collected an experienced team of food and technology industry veterans to develop and provide specialized intelligent technology and exclusive solutions for the food service and hospitality industries. Restaurants, convenience and grocery stores, university and corporate campuses, casinos, hotels, cruise lines, sports venues, catering groups, healthcare cafeterias, small kiosks, ghost kitchen operators, mobile food operations, food trucks, delivery and military sites are among the many segments poised to benefit from the company’s automated food assembly platform integrating RaaS, software, cloud and deep learning technology.
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