Meal kit company Blue Apron announced profitable second quarter 2020 earnings today, driven in large part by the global pandemic. Blue Apron’s net revenue for Q2 was $131 million, up 20 percent over the previous quarter and 10 percent year-over-year. The company reached a net income of $1.1 million, or $0.08 diluted earnings per share.
In its earnings release, Blue Apron attributed the good numbers to the “impact on consumer behavior from the COVID-19 pandemic.” Translation: Q2 was smack dab in the middle of restaurants closing and people stuck at home, cooking more. It didn’t hurt that early on in the pandemic, panic shopping meant groceries at the store were harder to come by, pushing people to find alternate ways of getting dinner ingredients.
Blue Apron added 20,000 customers during Q2, and the average revenue per customer increased 25 percent year-over-year to $331. Orders per customer were also up 17 percent to 5.4 and average order value increased to $61, the highest level since 2015. You can see the company’s growth in this chart from the earnings release:
While Blue Apron was a pioneer in the meal kit space, it’s a market that consumers seemed to have soured on in recent years. While meal kits send you all the ingredients, those meals still take a long time to prepare and cook. But the pandemic turned everything on its head, creating an any-port-in-a-storm situation. If you’re stuck at home for many months, may as well try out a meal kit shipped directly to your door.
Today’s earnings report is the first time in a while that we’ve written anything positive about Blue Apron. The last few stories we’ve done on Blue Apron here at The Spoon were basically preparing its coffin:
- Why a Blue Apron Sale is a Good Idea, and Who Might Buy It
- Will Blue Apron’s New Meal Prep Kits Help The Company Get Out of Its Rut?,
- Blue Apron Ends Its Jet.com Partnership to Focus on Its ‘Core’ Business
- Can a Beyond Meat Partnership Help Blue Apron Spike Orders? (Probably Not.)
Will this bump be sustained? In providing guidance for its Q3 results, Blue Apron said its outlook is “reflecting certain assumptions regarding the company’s business, trends, historical seasonal factors, and the continuing impact of COVID-19 on its business, including as a result of changes in consumer behavior and grocery alternatives.” The company is expecting revenue to grow year-over-year to $112 million with a net loss of no more than $18 million.
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