HelloFresh reports plans to expand market, meal options

HelloFresh SE plans to continue both its expansion into new markets and the growth of meal choices and options for customers, the meal-kit company said in a statement. 

The Berlin-based company gave an update on its midterm strategy Thursday at its Capital Markets Day event, an annual investor meeting that had more than 100 attendees. “Over the past year, HelloFresh has taken a big step in its plan to become a fully integrated food solutions group by significantly investing into the diversification of its portfolio of brands and offerings,” the company said in a statement.  

HelloFresh said it will focus on providing more options to customize its weekly meal choices, and it will continue to expand its HelloFresh Market—which allows its members to customize their meal kits with extras like desserts and quick lunches—following the success of its rollout in the United States, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg over the last two years.  

The company said its ready-to-eat business segment in the U.S. and Australia will be significant growth drivers in the midterm and will substantially improve profitability. “After re-investing a lot of the cash flow generated in its profitable operations globally, HelloFresh nears the end of a multi-year capex investment cycle by mid 2023,” the company said in a statement. “Upon completion, HelloFresh will have sufficient capacity to reach its mid-term revenue targets, while providing a strong moat to the business. This implies meaningful free cash flow generation in the future.” 

Dominik Richter, CEO and co-founder of HelloFresh, said in a statement that the growth of the company’s RTE vertical “has been nothing short of phenomenal, even though we are in the very early states of this exciting new category.” 

"We believe RTE can become as big as meal kits in the long-run and will be one of the major growth drivers for the Group in 2023 and beyond,” he added. 

HelloFresh is also in the early stages of testing a number of new products in the U.S., including the premium meat and seafood offering Good Chop, and the human-grade pet food Pets Table. ”These new verticals are still in their infancy and their success will be monitored closely in order to determine to what extent they will be pursued,” the company said.