HelloFresh – Cooking boxes for healthy food

Profile:

• Company name: HelloFresh SE
• Industry: Cooking box (e-commerce)
• Formation:  2011
• Founders: Dominik Richter, Jessica Nilsson and Thomas Griesel (with financial participation from Rocket Internet)
• Location: Berlin
• Number of employees : 4,276 (2018)
  
• Turnover: €1,300 million (2018)
• Investors: not specified
  
• Total Funding Amount: not known
• Subscription-based model since: Start
  
• Product costs: from €4.25 per portion (more info)

HelloFresh is the largest delivery service for cooking boxes in Germany. In these, recipes and the food required for them are put together for the consumer so that the buyer can easily re-cook the recipes. The cooking box is available on a subscription basis and in different variants. 

The company was founded in 2011 and is based in Berlin. The cooking boxes are delivered to various countries, including Germany, the USA, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria and Australia. Although sales are increasing, the company, which was financed by venture capital from the beginning, is currently barely making a profit.

Make everyday life easier with the HelloFresh cooking box

The idea behind HelloFresh is to make it easier for consumers to cook fresh meals. Instead of having to laboriously gather the ingredients in the supermarket, the consumer will find a recipe and all the necessary ingredients already weighed out in the cooking box.

In Germany, there are three variants: the Classic Box, the Veggie Box and the Family Box.  After selecting the respective box, the customer can put together their box. The number of people and meals must be selected. The Classic Box contains recipes with meat, fish and vegetables, the Veggie Box contains purely vegetable recipes and the Family Box contains recipes that are particularly appealing to children. After selecting the box, the number of dishes and people, the selection is made from the pre-selected recipes. Delivery is free of charge via DHL on the customer’s requested delivery date.

The customer gets all the ingredients and recipes for the week delivered to their home free of charge. This saves them a trip to the supermarket and a lot of preparation when cooking. The subscriber can make changes for the next week’s delivery until the end of each Wednesday. When selecting recipes, it is also possible to specify whether a Thermomix is available in order to find dishes suitable for the cooking robot.

The subscription is weekly – there is no minimum term so the consumer can pause or cancel the subscription at any time.

HelloFresh Box costs depend on the box you choose

The cost of the HelloFresh box depends on the box you choose, the number of people and dishes, and the delivery day.

While delivery on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday is free of shipping costs, shipping costs of 0.49 euros to 2.49 euros are charged for delivery days Monday, Tuesday and Saturday.

Prices for all boxes start at 4.25 euros per portion. The minimum quantity is always for two people, there are no single boxes. In comparisons, the ingredients were sometimes cheaper in the supermarket – but the advantage for the user is that they only receive the exact amount they need, already weighed out, so there are no leftovers.

Cooking boxes in comparison

Besides HelloFresh, there are other providers of cooking boxes.  Kochhaus is the oldest provider and sells its boxes in branches as well as online. The provider Marley Spoon, like HelloFresh, can only be ordered via the internet and is represented in six countries.

In 2010, seven companies started selling cooking boxes in Germany. Only a few years later, however, only three main providers are left, but they are struggling to survive in the niche market.

Development of the market for cooking boxes

Despite a steadily increasing company turnover, the company’s losses also increased.
In January 2019, the main investor Rocket Internet sharply reduced its stake and sold its shares in Hello Fresh in May 2019.

Hello Fresh was able to generate an adjusted pre-tax profit of €18.3 million for the first time in the second quarter of 2019 and the third quarter of 2019 was also positive.

All providers are counting on an expansion of the offer in the future. Kochhaus, for example, offers kitchen utensils, books, snacks, wines and various other foods for sale. While HelloFresh focuses on refrigerators that are stocked with fresh meals and can be rented by companies.