Home Chef is a Chicago, Illinois-based meal kit and food delivery company that delivers pre-portioned ingredients and recipes to subscribers weekly in the United States. According to the company it delivers three million meals monthly to its subscribers. On May 24, 2018, Kroger announced they were acquiring Home Chef for $200 million with an additional $500 million in incentives if certain targets are met by Home Chef. The acquisition closed during the end of June 2018 and the meal kits began to be stocked at Kroger stores in the middle of 2018.
Overview
Home Chef is a meal delivery service that provides a box of pre-portioned fresh ingredients directly to consumers that are ready to cook. With distribution centers in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Lithonia, Georgia, Home Chef delivers meals to all of the lower 48 states. Each meal kit comes with recyclable packaging, pre-portioned ingredients, and meal instructions. The rotating menu includes up to 15 meals for dinner, and the company also provides a weekly breakfast, lunch, smoothie and fruit basket option. In 2017, Home Chef had the highest satisfaction rating and the lowest customer attrition of companies in the meal kit market.
History
Founder and CEO, Patrick Vihtelic started Home Chef in June 2013. In September 2016, the company raised $40 million in funding from consumer-focused private equity fund L Catterton. In late 2017, Home Chef starting selling their products via Walmart, which is in addition to its website. The meal kits were available in select Krogers and Walgreens at the end of 2018. In early 2019, Home Chef added a customization feature, where the user can swap the protein, double the amount of protein or upgrade to a higher grade of protein by using the website. In August 2019, Home Chef launched Fresh and Easy, another meal kit provider and food delivery service. Fresh and Easy delivers fresh meals prepared by chefs before being packaged in heatable bags, then customers heat before serving. The website was previously used by the unrelated supermarket of the same name.
