The 2016 Meal Kit Battle Begins

Hello Fresh, Plated, and Blue Apron are the On-line and industry leaders today in the grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat meal kit space and have become disruptive pantry busters according to Foodservcie Solutions® Grocerant Guru®.  Hold your hats because it looks as if 2016 will become the year of the Meal Kit or so says our own Grocerant Guru®.

Meal Kits are fast becoming “Training Wheels for Millennials” as regular readers of this blog know. Meal kits are providing a platform of convenience combined with the added benefit of allowing Millennials to learn how to cook, what goes into meal planning, portion size, and most important timing a meal. Millennials are driving the success and consumer adoption of meal kits. 

Pennsylvania clearly is the testing ground for meal kits.  In September 2015, the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS), working with the Project on Nutrition & Wellness to develop and test Meal Kit programs for the Convenience store sector. NACS partnered with Square One Markets and Six O’Clock Scramble to test Fresh & Fast Family Dinner Kits™ the test was based in Pennsylvania. 

Grocery stores have been losing customers to convenience stores and restaurants for the past forty years.  Today there are 25.6 restaurants for every traditional grocery store. Convenience stores are growing total units and traditional grocery store unit numbers are shrinking. 

Wal-Mart has been testing fresh food meal kits but Ahold’s Giant-Carlisle just this week introduced fresh meal kits at its Camp Hill and Hampden Township stores in Pennsylvania as well as an incremental option for certain Peapod delivery customers. The grocery store sector is now officially testing repositioning ‘fresh food with customer relevance’ according to Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru®.

Erik Keptner, SVP of sales, merchandising and marketing for Giant, said in a statement. “We include only the freshest meat and produce, all pre-measured, at a cost less than if you were to buy all of the ingredients yourself.”  That my friends is a competitive platform designed for success.

Giant’s e fresh meal kits, are all ready to prepare and cook in 35 minutes or less varieties currently include:

• Pan Seared Chicken Breast with Creamy Mushroom Sauce, Garlic Roasted Green Beans and Seasoned Wild Rice
• Baked Chicken Parmesan with Rosemary Yukon Gold Potato Wedges and Fresh Ratatouille
• Mini Italian Style Meatloaf with Couscous and Fresh Vegetables 
• Peppercorn Steak with Creamy Blue Cheese Sauce, Chive Mashed Potatoes, and Garlic Roasted Broccoli and Cauliflower
• Pan Seared Boneless Pork Chops with Apple and Honey Mustard Sauce, Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Sweet Potatoes

The cost for one meal kit, which serves two people, is $14.99, and two kits, to serve four people, is $24.99.  Restaurants still have a competitive position as they have meals kits that are filled with Ready-2-Eat fresh prepared food that does not require cooking or doing dishes; and many offer Heat-N-Eat as well.  If you’re a C-store or Grocery store you just might want to call the Grocerant Guru® for insights on how to best position you meal kits with customer relevance. 

www.FoodserviceSolutions.us  specializes in outsourced business development. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities or a brand leveraging integration strategy.  Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma WA is the global leader in the Grocerant niche visit, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant or twitter.com/grocerant Contact Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us