After the spectacular failure of the Norbi Update burger joint on Moszkva Tér and Norbert Schobert‘s other embarrassments (apart from his name, of course), the Budapest Court has ordered the liquidation of the fitness guru’s meals-on-wheels company Norbi Egészségkonyha (“Norbi’s Healthy Kitchen”), writes hirszerzo.hu, based on a report in business daily Napi Gazdaság. Unfortunately, it seems Hungarians are more interested in watching TV, reading Norbi Update books and actually getting off their fat butts and going to the shops than actually ordering his slimmed down menus free from… deep breath… refined flour, sugar, sucrose, pig fat, regular bread crumbs, sunflower oil, colza oil, jams and fruit preserves with added sugar and aspartam.
The company, which launched in October 2005 on a healthy-eating ticket, stopped delivering in April 2006, less than a year later. On the bright side, although the Health Kitchen is no more, the Norbi Update range, “healthy” products made by leading food manufacturers, continue to be available from Food Expressz Kft., Hungary’s leading hot food delivery company, as well as many of Norbi’s former home-delivery rivals.
Lunch delivery companies mushroomed in 2005 as fierce competition developed to serve pensioners too weak to leave home and Hungarian office slaves tied to their desks. Food is usually ordered in person, by phone or on the web for the entire week with a set menu costing around Ft 900. Food Express (35%) and Gastroyal (20%) owned more than half the market, which, as Norbi found out, has no room for new guys, however fit and lean.
