Friday, May 10, 2019

Kroger Struggles, Stutters and Starts Meal Kit Renewal


The undercurrent of long-term success of a company is often based on a vision based on fact with the correct underlying consumer valued attributes that are driving relevance according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.
In the opinion of our Grocerant Guru® that after the failed experiment (Main & Vine) that resulted in an estimated loss of $12 Million dollars, Kroger would have garnered a understanding of the Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat grocerant niche.  It once again looks as if Kroger is struggling, stuttering and restarting its focus with its acquisition of Home Chef a meal kit lineup that has yet to make its mark anywhere.
Kroger’s Home Chef recently revealed that it plans to test oven-ready, heat-and-eat and lunch kit meals at 68 Kroger Co. stores, beginning this month. The first locations to offer the new varieties will be Mariano’s stores in Illinois and Kroger stores in Ohio, the latter through the retailer’s Cincinnati and Columbus divisions.
Meal kit are in the direct wheel house of the grocerant niche and it is nearly impossible to believe after buying the company a year ago they are just beginning to understand that what they bought and how they are offering fresh food is not edifying relevance with most of their customers.
One might ask, how easy is it for any company to continue doing what they have done and doing it in the same way.  Clearly, to easy.  What is customer relevant when meal planning today?  Who are the customers and just where are they shopping?
In the case of Kroger, with 19+ banners they have learned a lot one would suspect. However, in the opinion of our Grocerant Guru® a ‘lot’ is many times not enough.  Success does leave clues and clearly some companies have many clues yet to pick-up when it comes to consumers and Grocerant Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food.  
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/



No comments:

Post a Comment