A surge in sales of ready-made meals is offsetting falling demand for meal boxes at HelloFresh, which posted record sales in the first quarter of 2024.
A quarter of sales
HelloFresh turned over two billion euros last quarter, a growth of 3.8% and an instant record. However, the number of orders and the number of meals delivered continued to fall, but the average order value increased. Moreover, the delivery company saw strong growth in sales of ready-made meals. These accounted for 496 million euros, up 56%: so they already represent about a quarter of sales.
Factor, as the meal division is called, is available in Australia, Canada, the United States and – since last summer – also in the Benelux. Now HelloFresh is also bringing its prepared meals to Sweden and Denmark.
Partly due to high investments in the meals business and in marketing, adjusted operating profit did fall by almost 75% to 16.8 million euros, but it was ultimately better than what analysts had feared. For the full year, HelloFresh expects sales to grow between 2% and 8% and an operating profit of between 350 million and 400 million euros.
