HelloFresh Has Grocerant Fresh Food Fast

 

The growth of grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh food has driven growth within every sector of retail foodservice for the past 18 years according to Nielsen. Grocerant growth has created new avenues of fresh food distribution, expanding points of distribution for many legacy food sectors, and created hybrid specialty grocerant niche companies that continue to evolve garner consumers looking for fresh food, fresh meals, and more convenience. 

That said, Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® recently stated, “the grocerant of the grocerant niche, grocerant concepts, is only in the first inning. In a game where most new retailers are hitting home runs, legacy grocerant stores are striking out, and restaurants are on base moving forward.”

According to Jon Springer, HelloFresh, “the meal kit is shaping up to be something of a Trojan horse for HelloFresh Group, where officials say they have made their “first foray” into an accompanying online grocery store that appears to be on its way to the U.S.”

Today, restaurants have found new avenues of distribution to sell meals.  There are 29 restaurants in the U.S. for every grocery store simply because grocers don’t want to evolve according to Johnson.  That’s not a problem at HelloFresh who now wants to sell more ingredients, while garnering a larger share of stomach. That’s something that regular readers of this blog know quite a bit about.

HelloFresh for those who did not know is based in Germany, and is in the process of expanding what it calls its HelloFresh Marketplace store available in Europe that provides customers who use the service to buy their bundled recipes for meals the option of adding additional groceries to the order.

So, get this, in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg, where the service quietly pioneered late last year, the assortment of these extra items has grown to 150 products and is driving increased rings, profits and customer loyalty, officials said. This is encouraging the company to further expand assortment in Benelux, while launching similar offerings in additional markets, including taking steps to expand the U.S. consider our blog just the other day about Walgreens delivering 24,000 items in two hours.

The world of fresh food distribution is evolving faster than many legacy companies want to keep up with.  The consumer is dynamic not static, companies must be as well.  Walgreens is, HelloFresh is.  Are you?

HelloFresh new Marketplace is just one aspect of a strategic vision to evolve from a meal-kit company to a fully integrated food solutions group that HelloFresh officials first spoke about in a Capital Markets Day presentation in December.

HelloFresh is now attempting to “monetize” its audience beyond meal delivery traditionally focused on dinners shoppers prep themselves.  For now, HelloFresh offers an “add-on” store in most countries already with about 25 products, accounting for some 2% of its total revenues.

HelloFresh CEO Dominik Richter, stated, “I think there’s a very, very clear path how you can get to 15% to 20% revenue share with those add-on products.” So, a HelloFresh Marketplace appears to be on the agenda in the U.S.

Springer noted, “A recently posted Hello Fresh job ad sought an operations planning manager to be based in New York with strategic responsibilities for Hello Fresh’s product innovation vision, including a HelloFresh Marketplace. U.S.-based customers of the service, in the meantime, have also discussed discovering new availability of products in some markets in recent weeks, including packaged spices, bakery items and pantry essentials such as peanut butter—all of which were mentioned by officials in December when describing the Marketplace.” 

Here is the only question you have to ask yourself.  How is our company evolving to garner more customers with fresh food fast? Do you understand what the grocerant niche is all about?  Are you garnering a larger shore of stomach or larger share of food dollars?  If not why?  Doing what you have always done and doing it the same way will get you yesterdays results. Do you what to be in business in five years?

Success does leave clues. One clue that time and time again continues to resurface is “the consumer is dynamic not static”.  Regular readers of this blog know that is the common refrain of Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.  Our Grocerant Guru® can help your company edify your brand with relevance.  Call 253-759-7869 for more information.