While the food retail landscape isn’t one that sees an over-abundance of frequent, market-shifting innovation, meal kits are proving to be just that. In just a few short years in fact, they have carved out a unique—and profitable—niche in the U.S. grocery landscape. And what’s more, they’re no longer the exclusive domain of innovative start-ups aiming to deliver fresh, time-saving options to time-strapped consumers’ doorsteps.
Capitalizing on consumer desires for fast and fresh, in addition to the growing popularity of pre-portioned ingredients for complete meal prep at home, traditional retailers are also garnering big success with a range of in-store meal kit offerings. Notably, in the year ended 2017, in-store meal kits generated $154.6 million in sales, posting growth of more than 26% year-over-year. For context, total brick-and-mortar sales for center store edibles (grocery, dairy, frozen foods) dipped 0.1% last year to $374 billion. Nielsen – Read more…