Cook-at-home meal kits on the rise as second business enters Australian market

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This was published 9 years ago

Cook-at-home meal kits on the rise as second business enters Australian market

By Esther Han

Brussels sprouts were "disgusting" in the eyes of the Lonergan family until Monday, when they made oven-baked chicken with grapes and brussels sprouts for dinner and wiped every morsel off their plates.

"My husband and I hadn't eaten them since we were kids and my youngest son said 'they're meant to be disgusting'," said Michelle Honan of Balmain. "But the grapes sweetened the dish and it was delicious."

The family are one of an increasing number of Sydney families who have ditched their weekly grocery runs, opting for services that drop a box of recipe cards and fresh, pre-measured ingredients to their house.

The chance to try new dishes, the fall in kitchen waste and the convenience of doorstep deliveries has kept Ms Honan, her husband, Paul Lonergan, and children Amelia, 21, Oliver, 17, and Harry, 11, subscribers to HelloFresh for two years.

Using the contents of the "classic" box - the three meals for four people option costs $119 a week - they had cutlets with Asian slaw on Tuesday and vegetable quesadilla on Wednesday. Any leftovers were packed for lunch the next day.

"Before, we were getting bored of our recipes, like pastas and roasts," Ms Honan said. "Shopping was haphazard and there was angst about what buy and cook."

Competition is coming. My Food Bag in New Zealand was also attracted by the growth potential of Australia's "infant" market and will open a local arm on Monday. It amassed 6000 customers within a year of its launch in Auckland early last year.

The dinner kit category has only flourished around the world in the past three years. HelloFresh, which delivers 1 million meals a month across Europe and the US, received another $53 million from US investors involved in Twitter and Tumblr last month.

In the US, Blue Apron hit 600,000 meals a month in two years and is now competing with start-ups such as Plated, Chefday! and Munchery.

"People work what used to be 9 to 5. Now it seems like 8 to 6 and then they go to the gym, pick up the kids," said HelloFresh's Australian chief executive Tom Rutledge, who once enjoyed a stint on MasterChef. "It doesn't leave much time for cooking a healthy dinner, but people want to still do it."

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Two years ago, Rutledge delivered a couple of hundred ready-to-cook kits to Sydney homes in a van each week. Now, he orchestrates a fleet of 50 trucks across NSW, Queensland and Victoria and expects the fast-emerging category to "grow and grow and grow".

My Food Bag has aggressive expansion plans in Australia,

“We have 8000 subscribers in New Zealand now, which has 4.4 million people – that's about the population of Sydney," said Tim Elwin, general manger of the local arm.

HelloFresh customers can adjust boxes to receive three-night or five-night menus for two, four or six people, but have no choice over the dishes.

My Food Bag offers three bags tailored to different types of households, including the "gourmet" bag for "restaurant-quality dishes" and the "family" bag for those who relish pizzas, sliders and burgers.

The "classic" bag, which has five meals for four adults, is the priciest at $199 a week or $10 a head. But Mr Elwin said the benefits justified the price, with a product-to-product comparison showing it matched or came under that of supermarkets.

“Convenience aside, the produce we supply is free-range, preservative-free, and exceptional,” he said.

My Food Bag has enlisted Miguel Maestre of Channel Ten's The Living Room to design its recipes and promote its products. Alongside him are dieticians, recipe testers and food stylists.

"This is going to change how Australians have dinner," he said. "You don’t have to go to the supermarket and buy one kilogram of rice, because I’ll give you the 200 grams you need, the quail, the star anise, a head of garlic. I’ll put it in your fridge."

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