Online supermarket Crisp has been profitable in the Netherlands since June, thanks to cost-cutting measures and its successful meal boxes. Next year, the company hopes to also become profitable in Belgium.
Reorganisation
Crisp recorded a 25 % increase in sales this year, while managing to cut costs by 15 % over the past two years. This resulted in a profit for the first time: the company has been operationally profitable in the Netherlands since June, CEO Tom Peeters told Dutch newspaper FD.
Crisp still suffered a 50 million euro loss in 2022, but profitability is becoming more important given the changed investment climate: with rising interest rates, it is becoming harder for loss-making growth companies to raise venture capital. Crisp therefore carried out a number of reorganisations, cutting one job in ten at the Amsterdam headquarters, closing the Belgian distribution centre in Bornem and installing a more efficient packaging machine.
Despite a slowdown in growth after the pandemic, sales continue to rise steadily, the CEO elaborated: the number of customers ordering weekly is now 64 % higher than a year ago. This is partly due to the success of meal boxes, of which sales numbers have doubled since last year. Profitability per order has increased by 10 % in one year, so now every additional order contributes to profits.
