Monday, October 22, 2018

Food Delivery Dangles Dollars


The customer need for speed and increased demand for more fresh prepared meals, and meal components from the ilk of chain restaurants, convenience stores, deli’s, and new non-traditional fresh food retailers are all in a battle for a larger share of stomach to grow top line sales and bottom line profits according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.
Instacart recently landed an additional $600 million as part of a financing round led by hedge fund D1 Capital Partners. The e-commerce company has raised more than $1.6 billion in funding since its launch in 2012, and the latest financing lifted its valuation to $7.6 billion.  My friend’s fresh food delivery is not going away.  Yes, I know you have read in legacy food trade magazines delivery will be fading in two years.  Don’t believe it.
Regular reader of this blog know that our Grocerant Guru® was the first to identify, quantify, and qualify the ‘up-tick in demand for Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food delivery, online ordering, and pick-up food back in the day when he created the term/word GROCERANT then trademark it  to help explain the new platform driving incremental fresh food sales.
The new capital will be funneled toward additional expansion in North America — with new plans to build a Canadian technology hub — along with marketing investments to boost awareness of its service at grocery stores and recruit engineering and product development talent.
“The U.S. is nearly a $1 trillion grocery market, and last year we saw almost every major grocer in North America bring their delivery business online in a significant way. We believe we’re in the very early stages of a massive shift in the way people buy groceries, and we expect that one in five Americans will be shopping for their groceries online in the next five years,” Apoorva Mehta (left), founder and CEO of Instacart, said in a statement.
It’s not just restaurants that are expanding delivery of fresh food options. Grocery retailers recently making significant expansions with Instacart service include Kroger, Aldi, BJ’s Wholesale Club, Hy-Vee, Publix, Supervalu and Albertsons. Supervalu announced a program to resell Instacart’s service to independent grocers, while Albertsons launched an Instacart-powered virtual store for its O Organics brand.
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 Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, www.Linkedin.com/in/grocerant/ or www.twitter.com/grocerant/

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