Colruyt takes new step towards e-commerce with stake in Smartmat

Colruyt Group is taking an interest of more than 40 per cent in Smartmat, the company behind Rayon online supermarket and meal kits by Foodbag and 15gram. In doing so, the group wants to strengthen its online food offering.

“Logical next step”

Colruyt and Smartmat have already been working together since 2019, so the news has not entirely come out of the blue. The “One Meal Box” by Foodbag is available at Okay, and in several Collect&Go pick-up points, customers can pick up meal-kit boxes from Foodbag. Moreover, the Colruyt family is already a shareholder of Smartmat through its investment fund Korys.

“For us, having Colruyt Group in our capital is a logical next step: by anchoring our partnership, we will be able to expand and strengthen our existing relationship even more. We will further explore and deepen the complementarity with existing products and services. For us, this offers many interesting and exciting opportunities”, says Stéphane Ronse, managing director of Smartmat.  

Local and sustainable

Smartmat is known for its meal-kit boxes marketed under Foodbag and 15gram. The company serves 10,000 households every week and has a market share of 30 per cent. Recently, the company also launched its own online supermarket by the name of Rayon. Rayon delivers throughout the country and charges a mere 4.95 euros. The supermarket focuses its range on local and sustainable products.

According to Colruyt, the activities of Smartmat are a good addition to the existing services of the retailer, which wants to grow in home delivery. “Through this new partnership, we can expand our product offering in the online meal-kit market, and we will take further steps in the development of sustainable home delivery of online groceries”, says Tom De Prater, responsible for food commerce at Colruyt Group.

Exchanging expertise

The management team of Smartmat remains on board. Both companies recognise opportunities in exchanging expertise in logistics and distribution, but also “in the field of local sourcing, focus on seasonal products, attention to sustainable packaging, avoiding food waste and customer-oriented service”, according to Operations Manager Marc Hofman.

Specifically, Colruyt Group takes a 41.36 per cent stake in Smartmat by acquiring shares from the founders and the family holding Korys. Colruyt Group and Korys now each have 41.36 per cent of the shares. The founders keep the remaining shares.