Last updated on December 18th, 2017 at 09:04 am
Campbell Soup Co. last week invested $10 million in Chef’d, an e-commerce meal marketplace. The strategic partnership is designed to help grow Campbell’s e-commerce capabilities.
With the investment, Campbell becomes Chef’d’s largest strategic investor and will receive a seat on the company’s board of directors.
Campbell officials said Chef’d will help with infrastructure and distribution of meal solutions through the Campbell’s Kitchen site. Additionally, Campbell expects to benefit from Chef’d’s insights on e-commerce business models, access to data analytics and insights on shopper behavior. The two companies also will test various capabilities in product innovation and fulfillment over the course of the three-year agreement.
“E-commerce will transform the food industry in similar ways to how it transformed entertainment and apparel. It is a game-changer for consumers, food makers and retailers alike,” said Denise Morrison, president and CEO of Campbell Soup Co. in Camden, New Jersey. “The movement is irrevocable and irreversible. In the future, shopping for and preparing meals will be flexible, fully automated and even anticipatory. Chef’d will help Campbell connect with our consumers where they are today and, more importantly, where they’re headed.”
On the Chef’d site, users can choose and reorder from hundreds of meals at any given time, without the cost of subscriptions or membership fees. Chef’d partners with chefs, culinary personalities and more than 125 food, fitness and health and wellness brands to offer more than 1,000 meal solutions for breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert.
“We are actively looking to add strategic partners, and Campbell’s outlook on the future of food and e-commerce aligns perfectly with the Chef’d vision of the future of online grocery,” said Kyle Ransford, CEO at Chef’d. “Both Campbell and Chef’d believe in continuing to drive innovation in the new food economy, particularly around consumer customization and e-commerce solutions.”
Between 2016 and 2021, Campbell projects e-commerce sales of food and beverages to reach $66 billion, a compound annual growth rate of 38 percent.
