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Nestlé buys US meal delivery company Freshly in $950m deal

Since taking the helms at the world’s largest packaged food group in 2017, Nestle boss Mark Schneider has sold and bough around 50 businesses. Photo: Alvin Chan/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Since taking the helms at the world’s largest packaged food group in 2017, Nestle boss Mark Schneider has sold and bough around 50 businesses. Photo: Alvin Chan/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Food group Nestlé (NESN.SW) revealed that it has acquired US fresh meal-delivery company Freshly in a $950m (£734m) deal on Friday.

Nestlé said there were further payments or potential “earnouts” of up to $550m contingent on the successful growth of the business.

The startup, which was founded in 2015 — is a weekly subscription service delivering cooked meals that can be heated in three minutes.

"We are excited to welcome Freshly to the Nestlé family," Nestlé USA chairman and CEO, Steve Presley, said.

In 2017, the food group bought a minority stake in Freshly, as the lead investor in a $77m funding round. Freshly’s 2020 sales were forecast at $430m. The company ships more than one million meals per week across 48 US states.

Presley added: "Consumers are embracing ecommerce and eating at home like never before. It's an evolution brought on by the pandemic but taking hold for the long term.

“Freshly is an innovative, fast-growing, food-tech startup, and adding them to the portfolio accelerates our ability to capitalise on the new realities in the US food market and further positions Nestlé to win in the future."

Since taking the helms at the world’s largest packaged food group in 2017, Nestle boss Mark Schneider has sold and bought around 50 businesses.

Under his leadership, Nestle has been moving into categories like pet food and premium coffee and away from slower growing areas like mass market candy and bottled water.

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Freshly CEO Michael Wystrach, said the company is “extremely excited” to expand the relationship with Nestlé.

"Our mission is to make eating healthy easy by bringing nutritious, high quality meals directly to customers' homes. Convenience and nutrition are driving forces in the future of food, and our becoming a part of the world's largest food company confirms that.

“With Nestlé, we will have access to resources, research and development, and years of experience that we can tap into to catapult our growth plans and move closer to our goal of being in every household in America," Wystrach added.

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