All is well at HelloFresh: the meal box delivery company has increased both its sales and the number of customers and orders significantly. Profit is only slightly under pressure, so the company is raising its prices.
“Unique diversification”
The fact that the catering industry is now open again almost everywhere without restrictions does not seem to bother HelloFresh: the company posted record sales of 1.9 billion euros in the first quarter of 2022, an increase of 26.4 %. The provider of meal boxes gained 1.24 million active customers, a growth of 17 %. The total number of customers is now 8.52 million. Moreover, the number of orders per customer is increasing, as is the value of the average order.
The profit margin was slightly under pressure, however: it amounted to 25.2 % of sales, compared to 28.2 % a year ago. This is due to higher costs for ingredients, and also to investment costs for new production capacity and expansion to additional regions. Now that some new production centres are reaching cruising speed, the production cost as a percentage of sales will decrease again, HelloFresh states. The meal delivery company has also recently raised its prices.
“Thanks to our unique diversification across geographic regions, brands and business models, we have been able to weather the volatile macroeconomic environment and can continue our strong and profitable growth trajectory into 2022,” said Dominik Richter, co-founder and CEO of HelloFresh. The company expects sales to grow between 20 % and 26 % this year and an AEBITDA between 500 and 580 million euros.
