The Meal Kit Market and How it Started
Middagsfrid, the world's first meal kit delivery service, was launched in Sweden in 2007. The concept quickly exploded in popularity, and in less than 15 years it is estimated by Goldman Sachs research that the meal kit industry has grown to between $3 billion and $5 billion.
Meal kit services provide their subscribers with pre-portioned ingredients for a number of meals, conveniently delivered to their front door every week. The customer then takes the ingredients and the recipe provided to create a home cooked meal.
What does this sudden popularity in the meal kit market mean for the logistics industry?
Using fresh produce, meal kit delivery companies will rely on logististics now more than ever. They simply cannot afford to deliver food which is late or under par.
Convenience is the key. If meals cannot be delivered on time, when scheduled, then a large part of why the customer subscribed to the service in the first place, disappears.
To succeed, meal kit delivery services should remove the need for customers to pop down to the local supermarket, otherwise, why subscribe to this service at all if not for convenience?
2) Loyalty from reliable delivery
Loyalty will no doubt stand hand-in-hand with reliability and service since a fresh product delivered on time and with great service is destined to gain loyalty from a customer.
3) Taking responsibility for quality
Any producer or processor involved with fresh produce for the general public holds the responsibility of ensuring that their produce ticks all the boxes.
Today, with instant and public communication, feedback and reviews, a customer can straight away voice their anger at a brand for not delivering what was promised. This ability actually creates a greater need to make sure that no stone is left unturned by the processor / manufacturer / logistics company, and that responsibility is maintained at each stage of the delivery chain.
Thermal doors will also assist with ensuring that cool room temperatures are consistently maintained throughout the day, consider the benefits of products such as thermal swing doors, insulated compact sectional doors, insulated Movidor high speed rapid doors, and Insulated dock doors.
4) Excellent logistics service
With any subscription-based service, great service is key to success. If the service delivers less than expected - then there are plenty of other meal kit companies out there, ready to step in and heal the wounds.
The last point of call and possibly the most memorable to the customer, is often the face at the front at the front door - the person who delivers the meal. It is a big shame to concentrate on all stages of the delivery, only to tip the hurdle over on the very last stage. And for the customer to forget all the great service that they had up until the point of delivery and then be disappointed by the service at delivery stage.
5) Speed of delivery
Blue April vs Hello Fresh. We started off comparing the benefits of whether or not we should shop/cook for ourselves, and now, we're comparing meal kit options. Should we go with raw veggies and recipes where we cook at home from the groceries delivered in our meal kit, or is heat-and-eat is the way to go? This shows the speed of how the meal kit industry is being incorporated into our lives.
Incremental but significant time saving products designed to increase the efficiency both onsite and during delivery ensure that forklifts and haulage vehicles are not delayed by minor elements such as warehouse doors. Although seemingly minor, think about how many times a day that personnel have to wait for doors to open and are they closed straight away?
With temperature controlled warehouses and delivery vehicles, you cannot afford to lose energy each time personnel and vehicles enter and exit your areas. Automated high speed rapid doors can eliminate a significant amount of wasted time by ensuring that doors are only opened when required and closed shortly after.
6) Rising delivery competition
In-house and third party delivery services will compete fiercely.
The rise of third party delivery services like Deliveroo and UberEATS has undoubtedly disrupted the food delivery space, in the same way Uber and Airbnb have shaken up the traditional business models of taxi firms and hotels.
On the one hand, many suggest that full-service restaurants (those that enable people to eat at their premises) have been heavily and negatively hit by the growth of these third party providers, prompting certain commentators to believe that “foodservice outlets are now at the mercy of third party delivery companies”.
However, others argue that certain third party services are actually supporting full-service restaurants. Take UberEATS for example: it allows restaurants to offer online home delivery services that they otherwise may not have been able to. 2015 saw a 118% growth in home delivery sales for full-service restaurants, and we expect this percentage to grow even higher in the next few years.
We also expect more and more restaurants to fight back by developing their own in-house delivery businesses to reduce reliance on third party usage for boosting sales. If this trend grows as significantly as we predict, then third party delivery services may need to rethink how they can continue to offer value to consumers above full service restaurants’ in-house teams.
Find out more about doors for the logistics industry
For more information, contact us online or to speak with the Remax Doors team immediately, call us on 1800 010 221.