The multibillion-dollar meal kit delivery market

In the US, meal kit delivery services have exploded into a $1.5 billion market in just the past few years — and the rate of growth does not seem to be slowing.

Meal kits offer consumers home-cooked meals without having to do any planning or grocery shopping.

Picture menus on online portals show gorgeous photos of the finished dish. Consumers simply click the ‘buy’ button and the service provider will deliver the premeasured fresh ingredients, along with full instructions. The consumer prepares chef-quality meals at home from fresh ingredients and avoids the preprepared heat-and-eat meal, takeaway or having to dine out.

Participants across the entire US food spectrum — from grocery home delivery services like Peapod and FreshDirect, to packaged foods marketers like Barilla, to meal-kits-only grocery store Pantry — are climbing aboard the burgeoning meal kits bandwagon.

Marketers are aiming for — and finding — a ‘sweet spot’ with consumers who do not have the time, inclination or know-how to shop for individual ingredients, navigate a recipe and cook from scratch.

In response to this growing market trend, Packaged Facts has released a first-edition report, ‘Meal Kit Delivery Services in the US’. The report looks at the history and the changing eating trends that are making meal kits viable. It also delves into the scope and demographics of users of meal kit delivery services and profiles more than two dozen competitors and their strategies, including Ahold USA, Blue Apron, Chef’d, Cooking Simplified, Din, Foodstirs, FreshDirect, Gobble, Green Blender, Green Chef, Handpick, HelloFresh, Home Chef, Hungryroot, Just Add Cooking, Markey Spoon, Munchery, Pantry, PeachDish, Plated, The Purple Carrot, Saffron Fix, Sun Basket, Terra’s Kitchen and Tyson Foods.