10 HelloFresh Competitors To Try Instead

HelloFresh is a German meal-kit firm that is more popular in the United States. It has its headquarters in Berlin. Its meal kits are slightly different from the regular ones. It doesn’t deliver freshly cooked food. Consumers receive the ingredients required to prepare a particular meal, and they need to cook it themselves using the recipe cards provided. Apart from Germany and the US, HelloFresh serves many other parts of the world as well.

Name	HelloFresh
Founded	2011
Headquarters	Berlin, Germany
SIC Code	5411
Status	Public, Independent Company of FWB
Industry Sector	Meal Kit
Employees	11,860
Trading Symbol	FWB: HFG

Dominik Richter, Thomas Griesel, and Jessica Nilsson established HelloFresh in 2011. The first two are still actively involved in the workings of the company as CEO and COO respectively. The firm’s revenue has been rapidly growing since it went public in 2017. As of 2020, its revenue was $4.2 billion.

HelloFresh Similar Companies

DoorDash, Sun Basket, Blue Apron, Home Chef, Goodfood, Gousto, Chef’s Plate, Green Chef, My Food Bag, Marley Spoon.

Who is HelloFresh’s Biggest Competitor?

The biggest competitor of HelloFresh is DoorDash. It is primarily an online food delivery service, but it’s the best of its kind in the US. It also delivers groceries and other meal preparation items. The company was founded in 2013 and is currently based in San Francisco, CA. It is the only company to have crossed the billion mark in revenue, along with HelloFresh.

How HelloFresh makes Money

The business model of HelloFresh is simple but unique. Many other companies have jumped on the bandwagon since then, but the credit for its development remains with HelloFresh. You just have to pick a meal from their menu. They will deliver all the necessary ingredients to your doorstep. You simply need to cook those ingredients according to the recipe provided and have your meal fresh.

Meal Kit

The meal-kit industry is different from the meal delivery industry in the sense that meal kit companies deliver pre-proportioned food ingredients for the customer to cook, whereas meal delivery services provide pre-cooked food. Though the industry originated somewhere in Sweden, HelloFresh popularized it around the globe.

DoorDash

DoorDash is considered to be the largest food delivery company in the US. It was founded by four Stanford University students, Tony Xu, Evan Moore, Andy Fang, and Stanley Tang in the year 2012. It has a healthy presence throughout the US, Canada, and Australia.

Online Food Ordering

Despite not being a meal kit service, DoorDash has been included in the list for ruling a closely related industry – online food ordering/food delivery. The company has three other brands under its belt, namely Cavier, Wolt, and Chowbotics. Its revenue is somewhere around $2.9 billion.

Sun Basket

Sun Basket, also stylized as Sunbasket, is a subscription-based food ingredient delivery service. You need to subscribe to their services (various options in the kind of food are provided) and receive a weekly batch of food ingredients and recipes for you to cook. The company was established in 2014 by Justine Kelly and Adam Zbar.

Meal Kit

Sun Basket’s subscriptions have kept on growing in number since its inception. And like every other meal kit business, they skyrocketed during the coronavirus lockdown periods. The company hasn’t gone public yet, still, its revenue is a whopping $592 million!

Blue Apron

Blue Apron is a meal kit company based in New York City, NY. It offers its services only within the boundaries of the US. It was founded in 2012 by Matt Wadiak, Matt Salzberg, and Ilia Papas. The company became public in 2017 with an IPO. Salzberg and Papas are still involved in its workings as chairman and CTO respectively.

Meal Kit

Pre-ordered ingredients are sent to the customer in the right proportions and preparations for cooking. An exclusive recipe is also included in the kit. A year after the launch of Blue Apron, they included wines in their subscription-based model as well, in an act to stand out from the competition. Its revenue is around $461 million.

Home Chef

Home Chef is another major meal kit company in the US that offers subscription-based pre-proportioned ingredients for direct cooking. Its monthly subscribers are, reportedly, upwards of three million. The company was founded in 2013 by Patrick Vihtelic.

Meal Kit

Home Chef delivers meal kits only to US residents. Based in Chicago, IL, it has distribution centers in LA and Lithonia, GA. It delivers fresh ingredients ready to be cooked. Smoothies and fruit baskets are also provided if required. Home Chef generates revenue of $236 million with the help of its 875 odd employees.

Goodfood

Goodfood Market Corp., simply shortened to Goodfood, is a meal kit company that also delivers groceries on-demand. It was founded by Jonathan Ferrari, Neil Cuggy, and Raffi Krikorian in 2014. It is currently headquartered in Montreal, Canada. Goodfood has more than 200,000 subscribers, making it one of the largest meal-kit firms in the country.

Meal Kit

Goodfood is a publicly-traded company that started off as solely a meal kit provider. It later expanded into an online grocery and a pre-prepared meals provider. Did you know that nearly 95% of the Canadian population has availed of its services? The company has revenue of $222 million and counting.

Gousto

Gousto is one of the UK’s top-rated meal kit companies. It was established in 2012 by Timo Boldt and James Carter (not to be mistaken for the former US president). Both the founders were featured on Dragon’s Den, a reality show by BBC, merely a year after the launch of Gousto. The company has its headquarters in Shepherd’s Bush, London.

Meal Kit

Like most other meal kit retailers, Gousto has a subscription-based model too. Subscribers receive a meal kit packed with fresh ingredients, measured in proportion, and a recipe card. The company generates revenue of $210 million.

Chef’s Plate

Chef’s Plate is a Canadian meal kit retailer in direct competition with Goodfood. Apart from weekly fresh delivery, the company guarantees that the recipes will be cooked within 30 minutes. Since Chef’s Plate is owned by HelloFresh, they do not compete with each other directly. The former clashes with other meal kit providers in Canada.

Meal Kit

Chef’s Plate was founded in 2014 by Jamie Shea and Patrick Meyer. It is presently based in Toronto, Canada. With just over 350 employees working for them, they still manage to secure revenue of $147 million.

Green Chef

You may have guessed from the name that Green Chef offers only vegetarian meal kits. It typically provides all kinds of vegan dietary kits, right from keto to gluten-free food. The company is owned by HelloFresh but operates in its own right. Being a purely organic meal kit retailer, it doesn’t directly compete with any other company on this list.

Meal Kit

Green Chef was established by Michael Joseph in 2014, and it was later acquired by HelloFresh in 2018. Green Chef is based in New York City, NY. It has a dedicated fan following, due to which its revenue has grown to $142 million over the years.

My Food Bag

My Food Bag is a highly acclaimed meal kit retailer in New Zealand. It is based in Parnell, Auckland. The company was born in 2012 through the efforts of five entrepreneurs, Cecilia and James Robinson, Nadia Lim, Carlos Bagrie, and Theresa Gattung. It is presently run by Kevin Bowler as the CEO.

Meal Kit

A meal kit isn’t a new concept in NZ, but it was made popular in the country by My Food Bag. It provides ingredients and recipes for the selected meal to the consumers. A publicly-traded company, My Food Bag serves the entirety of NZ. It generates revenue of $100 million.

Marley Spoon

Though popular as Marley Spoon, the company’s full name is Martha & Marley Spoon, with Martha being none other than Martha Stewart. Fan of the svelte American businesswoman? Then you should not miss out on her exclusive recipes.

Meal Kit

Marley Spoon was founded in 2014 by Fabian Siegel. It is currently based in New York City. Despite having such a famous personality in its ranks, the company makes only about $60 million in revenue.

Conclusion:

Top 10 HelloFresh Competitors: DoorDash, Sun Basket, Blue Apron, Home Chef, Goodfood, Gousto, Chef’s Plate, Green Chef, My Food Bag, Marley Spoon. HelloFresh tops the list with its $4.2 billion revenue. Together, these 11 companies contribute revenue of around $9.27 billion to the meal kit industry. The total number of employees is 26,500.

Competitor’s Stats:

Name	Founded	Headquarters	Employees
DoorDash	2013	San Francisco, CA, US	6000
Sun Basket	2014	San Francisco, CA, US	1700
Blue Apron	2012	New York City, NY, US	2343
Home Chef	2013	Chicago, IL, US	875
Goodfood	2014	Montreal, Canada	1183
Gousto	2012	London, UK	900
Chef’s Plate	2014	Toronto, Canada	350
Green Chef	2014	New York City, NY, US	745
My Food Bag	2012	Parnell, Auckland, New Zealand	200
Marley Spoon	2014	New York City, NY, US	340