USA – Chef’d, a major meal-kit company in the US, has suspended operations after burning through investments and failing to secure more funding, according to FoodBev.
The firm’s more than 350 employees -most of which worked at its warehouses in Brooklyn, New York, and California -were told that the company was shutting down earlier this week.
FoodBev reported that the announcement comes just a month after Chef’d said it would start selling its meal kits in 30 Duane Reade and Walgreens stores in the New York area.
Last year meat processor Smithfield Foods invested US$25 million in the meal kit firm, adding to the US$10 million that Campbell’s invested and a US$200,000 cash boost from online grocery company Fresh Direct.
Business Insider also quoted Chef’d CEO Kyle Ransford as saying: “We have had some unexpected circumstances with the funding for the business.
“Due to setbacks with financing, unfortunately, we are ceasing operations for all employees, effective today, July 16, 2018.
If we had been successful with these funding efforts, this difficult decision would have been avoided.”
Chef’d, which was launched in 2015, brought together different offerings from the likes of Atkins and Weightwatchers, and developed its own range of meal kits covering different meal occasions and cuisines.
The closure is a warning to other meal kit providers that may struggle to retain their subscriptions as consumers become tempted by other brands or scrap meal kits completely and return to grocery stores.
