HelloFresh continues to grow, despite a downturn after the pandemic caused a surge in sales. The German company’s growth mainly comes from the United States, which is now good for more than half of its revenue.
Fewer customers in the spring
“The second quarter is always weaker than the first”, CEO Dominik Richter told analysts who point out that HelloFresh has lost 500,000 customers since the beginning of the year. Once the New Year’s resolutions have cooled, people apparently order fewer meal boxes. The rising cost of living and economic uncertainty also play a role this year, especially in Europe. In the US, “only” 220,000 customers turned their backs on HelloFresh.
The total number of orders also decreased, from 34.6 million in the first quarter to 32.3 million now. More than half of all orders came from the United States, now by far the most important market for the meal box supplier. The country accounts for more than half of the revenue and three quarters of the operating profit, according to news site Finanzen. Also striking: the operating profit rose by almost 23 % in the US, while elsewhere gross profit fell by almost a quarter.
Against the current
Richter is nevertheless brimming with confidence: compared to a year earlier, the number of customers rose by more than 4 % to over eight million and sales even increased by more than 25 % to 1.96 billion euros – a record. Excluding exchange rate effects, sales even rose by 16 %. Orders became bigger and more expensive, while customers also opted more for additional products. HelloFresh, which with its growth is “going against the prevailing trend in e-commerce”, is thus on course to achieve ten billion euros in sales by 2025, the CEO says.
The inevitably higher costs, for everything from ingredients to delivery, did put pressure on profits. The company’s ebitda fell by 7.5 % to 145.9 million euro, net profit fell by a quarter to 62.5 million euros. The explanation: in order to maintain competitive prices, the company “largely mitigated the effect of inflation without fully passing on costs to customers”. For the full year, HelloFresh expects sales growth between 18 and 23 %, and a slightly lower operating profit than a year earlier.
