meal kits were mentioned in the WSJ Heard on the Street :
for review purposes :
""" Serving food with a side of technology was the perfect pandemic business model. Now old doubts are back with a vengeance: Just how many people will pay what it costs to have grub delivered to their door? """
'''''' HelloFresh HFG -4.04%decrease; red down pointing triangle shares fell 9% Tuesday after the meal-kit company said it was targeting revenue growth of anywhere between 2% and 10% this year, stripping out currency movements—a wide bracket but below most analysts’ forecasts at the midpoint. Its profit guidance also came in below expectations. ''''
'''' Based in Berlin, HelloFresh dominates the market for cook-at-home ingredient packages. In the U.S. it accounted for 78% of meal-kit sales last year, helped by various acquisitions, according to an analysis of consumer-purchase data by Bloomberg Second Measure. Home Chef, owned by supermarket chain Kroger, came next with 12%, followed by Blue Apron at 6%. Blue Apron’s stock has performed so badly that the New York Stock Exchange in December threatened to delist it. ''''
''''' HelloFresh is clearly big in the meal-kit business. The question for investors is whether meal kits are potentially big in the food business outside a pandemic. They tend to be less expensive than eating out, but much more expensive than cooking from scratch: HelloFresh currently charges $60.95 to deliver a box of two meals for two people each. Bears argue they are little more than a niche solution for urban couples with busy jobs in boom times. '''
''' All three companies wrestle with various forms of the same conundrum: Food is a huge market, but it isn’t well suited to e-commerce. Unprepared, it is bulky, heavy and of relatively low value, with complex refrigeration requirements. Prepared, it is of higher value but requires rapid delivery. Consumers are happy to take deliveries when the cost is subsidized by investors, but when it isn’t the market shrinks fast. ''
interesting niche.
I did n to realize delivery costs are so high
$ 60 for 4 meal-equivalents is pretty steep.
