Groupe SEB, which owns a portfolio of small appliance and cookware brands, announced this week that it has acquired French recipe site and digital media publisher 750g International. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Based in France, Groupe SEB operates in more than 150 countries around the world through its small appliance and household brands such as All-Clad, Tefal and Krupps. Products include cookware as well as air fryers, induction hobs, pressure cookers, countertop ovens and more.
750g claims it is the second largest cooking site in France, and according to the press announcement, the site holds 90,000 recipes and instructional videos, published in 5 languages and generates 10 million visits a month.
The press announcement is coming to us through rough translations, but it’s pretty easy to see SEB’s strategy here. Marrying 750g’s recipe content with SEB appliances and cookware, could create new guided cooking opportunities for the appliance maker. We saw a similar European move earlier this year when Zwilling took a 25 percent stake in fellow German guided cooking startup Cuciniale.
The acquisition of 750g moves SEB further up the stack. By having content operating under the same umbrellas as the hardware, it’s easier for SEB to integrate instructions and guided cooking operations directly into their appliances. Rather than just selling you one device one time, SEB can wrap an expansive, already built, recipe ecosystem that device that customers subscribe to.
Guided cooking is a trend we’re following here at The Spoon. Startups like Innit and SideChef are striking up partnerships around the world with appliance makers like LG and Electrolux, while Hestan is now integrated into GE appliances.
But in addition to going deeper up its existing cooking stack, having a content arm like 750g also allows SEB to broaden its stack. Having a digital cooking platform can open up new opportunities in discovery and e-commerce (a la shoppable recipes), or expand into digital cookbooks or perhaps even food delivery. Miele is doing something along these lines as it invested in shoppable recipe platform, KptnCook and partnered with MChef for food delivery for its Dialog ovens.
The recipe is not dead, and SEB’s acquisition of 750g shows that to navigate the future of cooking, hardware companies will need to develop content strategies as well.