Who Owns Hello Fresh?

HelloFresh is one of the leading meal kit delivery services. Founded in 2011, HelloFresh has simplified mealtime for millions around the world with convenient, fresh, high-quality ingredients and easy-to-follow recipes to create delicious meals – all without having to go grocery shopping. HelloFresh was the brainchild of three partners who pushed through the competition with a successful business model and is now one of the most recognized names in the meal delivery industry.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

The HelloFresh Co-founders include a trio by the names of Dominik Richter (currently chief executive officer), Thomas Griesel ( current chief operating officer), and Jessica Nisson. The company, which was initially named Jade 1314, was established in Berlin, Germany, and built with the tenacity of entrepreneurial spirit and drive. 

From humble beginnings, which started out with Richter and Griesel hand-delivering their first ten orders, HelloFresh is a company that now generates billions of dollars in annual revenue. 

Still, this kind of success isn’t something any co-founder can build on their own as quickly as HelloFresh did. Early on, HelloFresh was backed by an investment company named Rocket Internet. With their financial backing, the co-founders of HelloFresh were able to follow through on their vision and build what is now an empire in the meal delivery industry. 

In 2018, Rocket Internet sold its remaining stake in the company to international institutional investors. HelloFresh has been publicly traded and listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange since its initial stock launch in 2017.

HelloFresh operates its headquarters in Berlin, Germany, where its roots are firmly planted. HelloFresh has grown its meal-kit provider service to include international locations. HelloFresh currently has international operations in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Italy, France, Luxembourg, and the UK.

Meal kit delivery has soared over the past decade, with the meal kit category being one of the most popular types of services. Countless others have entered the market, but few have enjoyed success as meal kit companies the way that HelloFresh has. 

The way HelloFresh has accomplished this is with solid core values and a business model that speaks to customers. HelloFresh has taken away the stress of meal planning, grocery shopping, and cooking. They’ve also put the fun back into cooking a meal at home. HelloFresh has an intuitive understanding of what consumers want, and they’ve strived to hit each of those marks. 

HelloFresh came along at the very beginning of the meal delivery craze. They knew that consumers were hungry for ways to cook delicious meals with fresh ingredients but that they were also strapped for time, maybe a little unsure of themselves in the kitchen, or just plain bored with eating the same thing night after night.

Hungry customers were stuck in a rut, and HelloFresh created a way out. The company set forth to make it possible to enjoy cooking with fresh ingredients and save money at the same time. Compared to other meal kit delivery companies, HelloFresh offers a great value with hassle-free meal kits delivered right to their customer’s doors. 

In addition to all of this, HelloFresh attracts new customers and retains loyal customers with a solid business model that includes the following points. 

Budget 

About the time that HelloFresh was blossoming into the market, the word “convenient” was taking on some unpleasant associations. The term was associated with fast food or pre-packaged, processed food that you tossed in the microwave for a few minutes. Sure, there’s convenience, but in this case, it almost always came with a lack of nutrition, a lack of flavor, and a higher price tag. 

HelloFresh knew that with the right business model, they could offer convenient meal kits that were actually healthy and tasted good, all while keeping the ideal pricepoint for their target market in mind. Once the model was established, the sales team worked hard to market HelloFresh to the customers they knew were craving healthy, good tasting, home-cooked meals at an affordable price point. 

Today, the co-founders of HelloFresh still keep this in mind, which is just one of the reasons for their continued success. While some meal kits and prepared meal delivery services charge nearly twice what HelloFresh does, they’ve maintained a steady price point throughout the ups and downs of the world economy. 

Health

This is a big one. The founders of HelloFresh were personally invested in offering all the fresh, nutritious ingredients needed to cook a healthy lunch or dinner at home. Not only does making nutritious, tasty food more readily available benefit communities as a whole, it’s also something that’s very attractive to meal delivery consumers. 

HelloFresh meals are loaded with fresh vegetables, healthy grains, and lean proteins – all of which have been acquired from sources that HelloFresh has developed relationships with. HelloFresh also includes meals that are targeted toward specific health goals, with their Calorie-Smart meals, plus a selection of plant-based and vegetarian meals. 

Taste 

Of course, taste is important. Without it, HelloFresh would have lost repeat customers long ago. Considering that the longer HelloFresh is able to retain a consumer, the more profitable they are for the company, keeping their tastebuds happy is a top priority. 

HelloFresh does this by offering a wide range of flavors but not pushing the envelope too much in any category. The flavor profiles of their meals are familiar and comforting, with a bit of international flair thrown into the mix for when you want to stimulate the palate a little. Most HelloFresh meals are ones that even the pickiest eaters would happily eat. 

Sustainability 

HelloFresh takes a multi-tiered approach to their sustainability with their recipes. It all starts with an effort to reduce food waste and follows through with keeping carbon emissions in check, using sustainable packaging, and responsible ingredients sourcing.  

Fighting Food Waste

HelloFresh helps to reduce food waste by first being very mindful of how much food is wasted in their kitchens. It’s estimated that less than 1% of the food that HelloFresh receives is wasted in the production process of their meal kits. The fact that they’ve worked so hard to find high-quality ingredients is a big part of this. 

Second, HelloFresh creates recipes using pre-portioned ingredients that are meant to satisfy but not leave you so full that part of your dinner ends up in the trash or compost. With pre-portioned ingredients, you also don’t have partially used leftover ingredients in the refrigerator that you don’t know what to do with. 

Monitoring Carbon Emissions

HelloFresh keeps a keen eye on the carbon emissions, and they claim that ordering their meal delivery and cooking at home results in 33% lower carbon emissions than making a trip to the grocery store to get everything you need to make a meal. 

When you think about it, HelloFresh is of an even greater value when you choose a larger order of their easy-to-follow recipes. Unless you’re diligent about meal planning, you could easily go grocery shopping several times for three to five meals. Maybe more if you forget a few things. 

In some of their global markets, HelloFresh has also begun using eclectic vehicles for their delivery operations, taking yet another step to continually reduce its carbon footprint. 

Packaging Reduction 

Packaging reduction allows HelloFresh to increase their sustainability also help their customers save money in the long run. The company is always looking for ways to improve or reduce its packaging, which also contributes to less food waste. 

Customers can expect their meals to be delivered with almost entirely recyclable or reusable packaging materials. The recipe cards that are included with each meal are also available digitally on the company’s website or app. 

Responsible Ingredient Sourcing 

When you’re doing the grocery shopping yourself, it’s a bit of a hassle to track down the sustainability values of each company or vendor you purchase food from. When you have meal kits and recipes delivered by Hello Fresh, they take care of that detail for all of their customers. 

More than 80% of the farmers and food suppliers that Hello Fresh works with have acquired the GlobalGAP (Good Agricultural Practices) seal of approval. This is a great step toward responsible and sustainable ingredient sourcing, considering that Hello Fresh delivers meals in multiple parts of the world. 

While Hello Fresh started out in Germany, it wasn’t long after that they decided to expand their brand to other countries. They entered the meal delivery market in America right about the same time that their competitor Blue Apron (who was based in New York) did. 

As Hello Fresh solidified their place in the global market, it had the opportunity to consider the acquisition of other meal delivery brands. Hello Fresh now owns and serves as the umbrella brand for Green Chef, Factor, Every Plate, and the Canadian meal delivery service Chef’s Plate. 

Green Chef works on a very similar premise as Hello Fresh. They focus on sustainability in offering fresh, nutritious, and yummy recipes for consumers to prepare in their own homes.

Where Green Chef most noticeably forks off from Hello Fresh is with their focus on recipes for health-centered living. Green Chef offers meal plans to have either Keto+Paleo, Balanced Living, or Plant-Powered meal kits and recipes delivered each week. 

Factor is a more recent addition to the Hello Fresh family. The company, formerly known as Factor75, was acquired by Hello Fresh in 2020. Factor delivers prepared, single-serving meals that are ready to heat and eat. They have meal plans for a variety of dietary needs, including keto, vegan, calorie smart, and flexitarian.

Every Plate, which is another company owned by Hello Fresh, focuses on offering great value to its customers. Every Plate is marketed as an affordable meal delivery service for everyone. It all works on the same model as Hello Fresh and Green Chef, except that the ingredients and recipes are more value-minded for customers who may have thought that meal kit delivery was something that was out of their budget. 

Chef’s Plate is currently the only one of the company’s brands that are located only in Canada. They offer a flexible menu of choices each week, with a selection that looks very much like what you’ll find on the menu for Hello Fresh.

What started out as the brainchild and vision of Dominik Richter and Thomas Griesel is now a company that generates billions of dollars in sales every year. Hello, Fresh has kept millions of customers happy for a solid decade, and they’ve accomplished this with tenacity, a strong vision, and a model that customers love. Try Hello Fresh for yourself and see what you think of their famous meal kits that are delivered straight to your door.