Making Money with Meal Kits Partnerships

Regular readers of this blog know that Steven Johnson the Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® called 2018 the year of foodservice partnerships. He also believes that there is plenty of room for growth in the meal kit sector moving forward given the proper partnerships.

Recently the CEO of Marley Spoon told Reuters he expects the Berlin based meal kit company to be profitable by the end of next year. Fabian Siegel said the company hopes to raise about $53 million when its stock starts trading July 2 on the Australian Securities Exchange.

Today Australia represents approximately 37% of Marley Spoon's revenue, according to TechCrunch, with the U.S. and Europe slightly behind that level. Siegel told TechCrunch the company has broken even in Australia and expects to hit profitability there in the second half of this year.

Marley Spoon is quite optimistic about its prospects through the upcoming IPO. It's been focused on innovations, including a Thanksgiving dinner partnership with Martha Stewart.  Regular readers of this blog know the team at Foodservice Solutions® was first to call this partnerships a success  Martha & Marley Spoon and Dinnerly, is a less-expensive meal kit option with fewer ingredients a set of differentiation points that are still relevant..

Partnerships are the new electricity driving retail foodservice success today according to Johnson. According to Johnson, “Brand relevance is in part driven with innovation in new food products in combination with new avenues of distribution all of which are the platform for the new electricity.”

Johnson stated “that in my minds-eye the new electricity must be very efficient for the supply and includes such things as fresh foods, grocerant consultants, urban farming (produce, seafood, etc.), autonomous delivery, voice and visceral mobile ordering, Geo-based hand held marketing. This program has all of that.

Foodservice retailers to survive the next generation of retail must embrace the artificial intelligence revolution while simultaneously embracing fresh food that is portable, fresh, with differentiation that is familiar not different.  That will require brands to embrace new fresh food partnerships more now than ever before according to Johnson. Let’s look at the meal kit sector as an example.

Blue Apron and Costco, have formed a partnership and both teamed with Airbnb, pop-ups and various advertising channels  to acquire and retain customers and boost its bottom line.  HelloFresh recently acquired Green Chef, an organic meal-kit company, and placed meal kits inside then formed a partnership with 600 Ahold Delhaize stores, to drive sales.

A 2017 Packaged Facts report noted the meal-kit market had hit $5 billion in sales, and Food Business News reported it could achieve $35 billion by 2025, so there's a lot to gain if retention, marketing and delivery problems can be overcome.

The team at Foodservice Solutions® believes that partnerships specifically non-traditional partnerships will drive incremental growth within all sectors of retail foodservice.  What is your new electricity? Do you need Outside-Eye’s to drive inside sales?

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

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