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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Purple Carrot

Blue Apron Adds Customization, Extra Boxes to Meal Kit Subscriptions

Blue Apron announced today it has expanded its product line to introduce more flexibility into its meal kit subscription plans, likely in a bid to reach a wider number of homebound customers. To do this, Blue Apron unveiled three new features: recipe customization, the ability to get multiple meal kit boxes per week, and more meals per week for the two-person box.

Recipe customization is the most intriguing of these options. Customers will be able to “customize select recipes” by swapping out choice of protein, switching a veggie for a starch, increasing portion size, and replace a meat portion with a plant-based protein. (Blue Apron has maintained a partnership with Beyond Meat since 2019.) 

Blue Apron subscribers will also have the option to receive multiple boxes per week. Subscribers normally get one box per week that contains all ingredients for Blue Apron meals for that week. This new feature gives customers the option for two boxes per week, for a total of eight different recipes that can be delivered at staggered times. 

Finally, Blue Apron has added an extra meal to its Two-Person Signature box for a total of four meals per week. 

That the extra features are all about customization and flexibility makes sense, given the uncertainty of the restaurant dining room and the fact that more consumers are eating in these days. Adding more choice to its offerings potentially allows Blue Apron to reach a wider audience. 

Blue Apron has struggled for the last few years, along with the entire meal kit sector. Of late, though, the company has seen something of a resurgence. On its most recent earnings call, Blue Apron said its customer base grew by 20,000, and average revenue per customer increased 25 percent year over year.

Other meal kit companies, including Sun Basket, Purple Carrot, and HelloFresh, have also reported an uptick in demand.

In today’s press release, Blue Apron said its new features will be available to all subscribers by the end of the year.

Purple Carrot Launches Frozen Meals at Whole Foods Stores

Purple Carrot, best known for its plant-based meal kit subscription service, is getting into the retail game. The company today announced the launch of a line of frozen, single-serve meals that are now available at Whole Foods stores in the U.S.

Like the rest of Purple Carrot’s offerings, the meals are 100 percent plant based and developed in partnership with CPG company Conagra Brands, which owns Health Choice, Earth Balance, and Gardein, among other names. 

These frozen meals will be available for purchase at “nearly all” Whole Foods stores in the U.S. this week for $5.29 each, according to the company press release.

The move to retail is a first for Massachusetts-based Purple Carrot. It has long been known for its subscription-based meal kit company, which specializes in plant-forward, vegan-friendly meal kits. The company was acquired by Tokyo, Japan-based Oisix ra daichi Inc. in 2019. 

Purple Carrot’s launch in physical retail outlets comes at a time when more people are ordering their groceries online thanks to the pandemic. And recent research suggests the pandemic is also causing something of a resurgence in the previously struggling meal kit sector. Finally, COVID-19 may be ushering a new trend into the food world: frozen food as medicine. Given Purple Carrot’s plant-forward, healthy menu, the new line of products is a prime contender for this category.

One might wonder why Purple Carrot is focusing on physical retail stores right now. But despite what the headlines would have us believe, not everyone is avoiding the brick-and-mortar grocery store. Presumably online shoppers will still be able to purchase Purple Carrot’s frozen meals along with any other item they throw in their virtual cart. And with more people working from home, these single-serving meals could easily become a regular staple of someone’s freezer, and a quick way to grab a healthy bite in the middle of the workday.

Could the COVID-19 Outbreak Save Meal Kits?

When I get anxious or stressed out, my natural response is to cook elaborate meals for myself. Following complex recipes soothes me.

But I understand that that is absolutely not the case for many folks out there. Nonetheless, in a time where we’re not supposed to be leaving the house, there’s only so much delivery you can order in — and so many meals of spaghetti you can make.

That’s where meal kits could come in handy. They’re delivered to your door (no venturing out to grocery stores!), contain ingredients for a balanced meal, and give folks who might not be super comfortable in the kitchen some training wheels to get them cooking. On top of that, most meal kit services are at least slightly cheaper than ordering delivery, especially when you factor in tip.

I reached out to a few meal kit companies to see how the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent social distancing is affecting them. And the news was uniformly positive! Unlike many food-related companies, meal kits are actually seeing a boost in sales.

Purple Carrot’s founder and CEO Andy Levitt told me that the company had seen a “sharp increase in demand for our plant-based meal kits since COVID-19 has been shifting consumer behavior.” A representative from HomeChef emailed me that the company was seeing an “unprecedented increase in orders” with “more people cooking at home.” Over email, Blue Apron’s CEO Linda Findley Kozlowski also noted that the company had seen “a sharp increase in consumer demand.” No one would disclose exact numbers.

All of the companies I contacted emphasized that their employees were following CDC guidelines to ensure food safety during sourcing and packing. One benefit of meal kits is that the ingredients are packed in a warehouse, which means there are also fewer people touching your food and less chance of contamination than in a supermarket.

As we’ve written about time and again on The Spoon, the meal kit industry has been struggling for quite a while. Will this recent boost in subscribers be enough to sustain meal kits? Levitt is optimistic; he anticipated that the demand would continue even after the COVID-19 pandemic dies down.

I’m perhaps less so. The basic problems for meal kits — managing disparate supply chains, encouraging customer stickiness, making recipes easy enough for anyone to cook, and competing against food delivery — will still be present in our post-coronavirus future.

True, maybe some folks who are trying out meal kits now will get hooked and decide to continue on that path. But overall, if meal kit companies want to survive I think they’ll have to continue to innovate to cater to shifting consumer needs by focusing on retail, enabling more customization, and creating easier, faster recipes.

But for now, meal kits are filling an important need for consumers who want to cook more at home, but aren’t sure how. It’s a small but noteworthy silver lining in the time of COVID-19.

Purple Carrot Is Launching an Incubator Program for Plant-based Food Brands

Got an early-stage startup developing plant-based consumer packaged goods? Purple Carrot may be able to help. The plant-based meal kit company just announced a new incubator program called The Garden Incubator that aims to invest in plant-based CPG companies and help them scale up.

Each selected participant gets $250,000 in seed round funding provided by VC firm Unovis Partners and its New Crop Capital fund. Unovis specifically invests in companies developing plant-, fungi-, and cell-based protein replacement foods, and counts AlephFarms, Beyond Meat, and Good Catch among its portfolio companies. Purple Carrot is also a member of the firm’s portfolio.

In addition to the seed funding, Purple Carrot will work with companies on improving and growing strategy, branding, financial modeling, data analytics, operations, and fulfillment areas of their businesses. 

“The plant-based space is in the midst of a powerful transformation with a range of early-stage brands that are struggling for investment dollars, product-market fit, and distribution. With The Garden our goal is to accelerate the positive trajectory of qualifying brands, improve their focus and enable rapid and improved distribution in the U.S. and beyond,” said Purple Carrot founder and CEO, Andy Levitt said in the press release tied to the announcement.

Needless to say, the major criteria for joining The Garden Incubator is a focus on plant-based food products. According to the program’s website, the program looks for “early stage plant-based CPG companies with unique and scalable products.”

Unlike startup accelerators, which usually run for a set period of time, incubator programs typically have no set start and stop date, and take applications on an ongoing basis. As of right now, no deadline is affixed to The Garden Incubator’s program. Those interested in applying can simply fill out the application.

Purple Carrot was acquired by Tokyo-based Oisix, Japan’s largest meal kit and food delivery service, in May of 2019. For now, its focus on plant-based products remains somewhat unique in the world of accelerators and incubators, though given the popularity of plant-based foods, that will change soon.

Updated: Plant-Based Meal Kit Company Purple Carrot Acquired by Japanese Grocer Oisix Last Month

UPDATE: Purple Carrot sent out a press release officially announcing the deal, though the numbers they provide are different. From that announcement:

Purple Carrot, the plant-based meal kit company with operations in the U.S., today announced that it will be acquired by Tokyo-based Oisix ra daichi Inc. (Oisix), Japan’s largest meal kit and organic food delivery service…

Purple Carrot’s corporate headquarters will remain in Massachusetts, and the entire executive leadership team will maintain their roles in the organization. Terms of the deal include an upfront payment of $12.8 million, with an earn-out potential of an additional $17.2 million through 2021, creating a total deal value of up to $30 million.

This runs counter to the financial document that Oisix released on April 25, which listed a $4 million upfront payment. Additionally a representative of Purple Carrot told The Spoon that the ownership numbers listed in that document were incorrect.

We are still looking into this and will update as more information becomes available.

OUR ORIGINAL POST FROM 5/21/19 FOLLOWS:
Evidently, plant-based meal kit company Purple Carrot was acquired by Japanese online grocer Oisix last month. It happened quietly, at least here in the U.S.; there’s no mention of the acquisition on the company’s blog or press page, and the only press release for the acquisition appears to be in Japanese from Oisix.

We learned about it from a Linkedin post today by Sean Butler, Managing Director, Demand Chain for LIDD (and former SVP at Chef’d). From that post:

Well-known meal kit company Purple Carrot has entered into an agreement to sell itself to Japanese online grocer Oisix ra daichi, according to documents published on the grocer’s website. Oisix ra daichi will pay a mere $4 million USD for Purple Carrot, with a further maximum payout of $17 million due if Purple Carrot fully achieves its three-year earn-out goals.

From the Oisix press release (in Japanese), the acquisition was announced on April 25, 2019. Purple Carrot had raised $10 million so far, including a $4 million investment from fruit company, Del Monte last year. Oisix released a financial document on April 25, outlining more specifics about the deal, including that Purple Carrot had sales of more than $40 million in 2018, and had losses of more than $4 million in 2017 and 2108. Additionally, CEO Andy Levitt and President Brian Greenfield held a combined 80.4 percent of the shares in the company. As Butler writes, this initial $4 million purchase price leaves just $784,000 total for all the investors.

Purple Carrot’s low exit is emblematic of what has been a tough year for meal kit companies. Albertsons laid off ten percent of Plated’s corporate staff and Blue Apron announced this week it could get delisted from the New York Stock Exchange because it’s share price had remained below a dollar since May.

Despite all this sturm and drang, there are still some signs of life in the meal kit market. Kroger is piloting a new line of Home Chef meal kits, and Amazon debuted its meal kits at Whole Foods. Additionally, according to research from Nielsen, meal kits are still growing, driven mostly by their move into retail.

In addition to the straight-up plant-based meal kits, Purple Carrot also created TB12 meal kits in partnership with New England Patriots quarterback, Tom Brady. Wonder if that Super Bowl champion lost anything on that deal with this news.

We reached out to Purple Carrot and will update this story when we hear back.

Del Monte Invests $4M in Vegan Meal Kit Maker Purple Carrot

Plant-based meal kit company Purple Carrot just announced a $4 million equity investment from Fresh Del Monte Produce. The Needham, Massachusetts-based company reportedly plans to use the money to improve its supply chain and, according to a press release, “gain access to the developing retail channel.”

Like other meal kit companies, Purple Carrot offers a subscription-based service with pre-portioned ingredients, recipes, and cooking instructions. According to Bloomberg, the investment from Del Monte will give Purple Carrot further access to national distribution channels. (It currently ships kits to the 48 contiguous states.)

Purple Carrot has two plans on offer: a regular kit and its TB12 offering. The latter was created in partnership with Tom Brady, and mimics the quarterback’s own high-protein, plant-based diet.

As pricing goes, Purple Carrot is on the higher end of the spectrum in comparison to other meal kits: a two-person plan goes for $72.00 per week for three meals, and the number jumps to $78.00 per week for the TB12 plan.

The market for plant-based foods is expected to hit $25 billion in 2020— roughly double from 2015. As one writer put it last year, “plant-based foods are no longer niche.” At the same time, the meal kit market is also growing, despite a somewhat dubious end to 2017. It’s expected to expand from $1.6 billion in 2016 to $35 billion in 2025.

Part of that growth is the number of companies now putting their kits on grocery store shelves, among them Plated, Chef’d, and, most recently, Blue Apron. Interestingly, Purple Carrot tried the retail avenue ages ago, when it landed on the shelves at a few Whole Foods stores in 2016. The company chose to put the program on hold to focus on the Tom Brady partnership. And while Purple Carrot hasn’t yet elaborated on what it means by “developing retail channel,” the likely answer is supermarkets.

The company’s past relationship to retail could give it a little extra muscle in terms of staying competitive. But Purple Carrot isn’t the only meal kit service out there aimed at health-conscious consumers. Sun Basket raised $57.8 million earlier this year for its service, and more established meal kit companies have long offered high-protein, gluten-free, and other health-conscious plans.

With the average meal kit price hovering around $10 per person, the more expensive Purple Carrot will need to work hard to make its plant-based plans appealing to more than just the vegan crowd. We’ll see what kind of influence a major brand like Del Monte has on the company’s prospects, for better or worse.

Want To Eat Like A Star Quarterback? There’s A Meal Kit For That

Tom Brady and the New England Patriots in general usually elicit one of two reactions: complete fanboy love or abject hatred. But if you’re in the love fan group or you’re just someone who wants to follow the diet plan of a superstar athlete, then meal kit delivery service Purple Carrot has a new product for you.

Called TB12 Performance Meals, a nod to the quarterback and his Patriot’s team jersey, they were designed to give consumers a super healthy, plant-based, gluten-free weekly meal plan that mimics Brady’s own regimen. According to Purple Carrot, the TB12 meals were designed around the needs of someone who requires fuel that promotes healing from intense physical workouts and fuels the body to encourage peak performance.

The TB12 philosophy is focused on preventing injury and promoting accelerated injury recovery through holistic, whole-body wellness, incorporating exercise, recovery, and hydration & nutrition concepts like those expressed in TB12 Performance Meals.

The meal kit comes with ready to prep ingredients, similar to competitive meal delivery kits like Blue Apron, Hello Fresh and Sunbasket but is higher priced at around $13 per plate or $78 for the week at only 3 meals a week. The meals are highly specialized and created to be high in protein and low in sugar, soy and processed ingredients. Purple Carrot points out in the FAQs that the TB12 meals are different from their traditional offerings, designed specifically for individuals that have a higher metabolism due to increased daily activity and are only available for 1-2 people in each box.

Brady’s diet and commitment to personal wellness are well known among fans and was chronicled in the Boston Globe extensively. Purple Carrot approached Brady last summer and the pair began to discuss the potential meal delivery partnership. They worked to identify meals that Brady regularly eats at home and on the road and crafted workable recipes that could be recreated in a meal kit.

In a statement to Fortune, Purple Carrot Founder & CEO Andy Levitt said about the opportunity, “The meal kit industry has grown significantly since I launched Purple Carrot two-and-a-half years ago. Partnerships with great organizations like Whole Foods Market, and incredible people like Tom Brady, enable us to elevate our brand even further.”

Brady isn’t the first celebrity to cash in on their personal brand and the meal kit boom – Martha Stewart partnered with the Marley Spoon to create one her own along with countless celebrity chefs like Michael Mina and Jamie Oliver. Athletes as food spokespeople is a well-known advertising tactic and it’s no surprise that companies will look to increasingly popular products like meal kits to continue that trend as the way we cook and consume food evolves.

The TB12 brand is something Brady has worked to build out with other offerings as well, partnering with Under Armour to offer apparel, creating a foundation to support elite athletes who become injured and creating a personal gym and fitness program. TB12 Performance Meals can be ordered today and boxes will start shipping on April 3rd.