Chef’d Poised for Revival Following Acquisition

In the wake of meal kit company Chef'd ceasing operations, True Family Enterprises and its wholly owned subsidiary True Food Innovations (TFI) has acquired the assets of the Los Angeles-based meal kit company after its flameout last week due to funding and expense issues.

The deal by the privately held TFI, terms of which were not disclosed, includes plant, property, equipment, brand and intangible assets. TFI, a multifaceted fresh food technology, CPG and manufacturing firm that markets a line of meal kits under the True Chef name, said it plans to consolidate these assets into the existing businesses of True Food Innovations.

Chef'd meal kits, available in hundreds of U.S. stores, launched in partnership with Smithfield Foods, the Virginia-based pork processor that was the company's largest strategic investor. Sources said Chef'd's retail products were profitable but that high costs associated with fulfilling online orders contributed to its financial issues.

In a statement, TFI President Robert Jones said the company would carry on the Chef’d business and brand but will concentrate its focus on in-store meal kits instead of online. “We believe the retail channel will continue to grow and we will concentrate our efforts on that portion of the Chef'd business," said Jones, who, prior to leading Newport Beach, Calif.-based TFI, served as SVP of business development for Chef'd.

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"We are looking forward to working with brands and former customers as we restructure and operate the Chef'd assets,” said Jones. “We have already developed and are in market with long shelf-life retail meal kits under the brand of True Chef, so we seized the opportunity to acquire the assets and brand of Chef'd as the transaction will be accretive to our business from day one.”

TFI provides manufacturing services, product development and high-pressure processing (HPP) packaging solutions. It has developed what it describes as “customer partnerships that introduce first to market, private label meal kits and retail-ready HPP products both domestically and internationally."