MEAL KITS: A DREAM-COME-TRUE FOR HOME COOKS
Home cooking can be quite a challenge, especially for time-poor professionals or those who lack the confidence and knowledge to cook from scratch. It takes time to prepare meals at home. You need to look for inspiration, get to know all the ingredients, pick them up from the grocery store, cook the dish, and clean the dishes afterwards. In our new normal of corona lock down and restricted movement – meal kits are coming into their own and providing a convenient solution for many would be home cooks.
This service, which first started back in 2007 in Sweden, is a type of convenience service that combines the expertise of chefs and nutritionists, as well as personal shoppers, and delivers pre-portioned fresh ingredients based on pre-determined weekly menus to consumers’ homes.
Following are some of the benefits that stand out from meal kit delivery services:
Convenience
Maybe one of the greatest benefits of the meal kit delivery is convenience. Having your meals pre-determined and pre-portioned for the week means that you don’t have to go to the grocery store to pick up fresh ingredients for your meals.
And since all ingredients are pre-portioned in just the right amounts, this also means that you don’t have to squeeze your brain to find some use for that one stalk of celery which was left out from last week’s meal.
New experience
Another benefit of having a meal kit delivery service is to have the opportunity to explore and try out new (maybe sometimes even unfamiliar) recipes and ingredients. From gluten-free to Mediterranean to vegan meals, meal kit services offer a vast amount of choice, which could be a dream-come-true for enthusiastic home cooks.
The available range also means there is no barrier for consumers with special diets to use this service.
Healthy food
And of course, the most crucial benefit of having a meal kit delivery service is its health benefits. The fact that this service made healthy yet delicious food easily accessible for consumers is indeed attractive as consumers’ awareness for healthy eating has been increasing in recent years. We can truly understand that healthy food doesn’t have to be boring.
Why is this interesting?
The innovation of the meal kit delivery service strongly reflects current food trends – aligning with the movement towards convenience, customization, and more ethnic cuisines. As the market is becoming more dominated by millennial, the meal kits might be here to stay.
In Europe, Germany has the largest meal kit delivery service, which dominates 25% of market share, followed by the UK and France. With the increased focus on enjoying life, the meal kit delivery service market is likely to witness strong growth in the coming years. This will impact other food industry sectors such as instant food, frozen food, and other ready-meals sectors.
It may be that the corona crisis is giving new opportunity to this trend – and that it will be set to expand once we return to life as usual.
How can we help?
ADK Insights continuously monitors emerging trends in the food industry and translate its impact on consumer behaviors, providing insights to help businesses future-proof their innovation.
To know more about our experience and see what it could mean for your business, please contact Rob.
Your contact:
Rob Findlay
25 years brand planning and business management experience. Specializes in structuring research insights into clear actionable marketing strategy and brand development opportunities.