Hellofresh makes less profit

The Berlin-based cooking box company Hellofresh is growing so strongly that it has been able to raise its forecasts for the year as a whole. At the same time, there is less left over at the bottom line.

Hellofresh recorded a turnover of 1.4 billion euros in the third quarter of this year. Compared to the previous year, this represents an increase of almost 50 percent. As a result, the company now expects sales for the year as a whole to increase by 57 to 62 percent. Previously, Hellofresh had expected to generate 45 to 55 percent more. At the same time, however, the adjusted profit fell from 114.7 million euros in the previous year to the current 79.8 million euros. According to Business Insider this is because the company had higher procurement and distribution costs and spent more money on marketing.

Hellofresh explains that the higher sales growth was mainly made possible by the fact that a large proportion of customers (38.8 percent) are particularly active. The strong customer loyalty would be reflected in high order rates and an increase in average order values. The takeover of Australia's leading company in the so-called ready-to-eat segment, Youfoodz, also had a noticeable effect. The Australian company contributed 0.4 percent of growth. Most recently, Hellofresh launched in Italy and announced the acquisition of around 10 percent of Russia's leading cooking box company Chefmarket.

"With all these investments, we continue to focus on achieving our medium-term sales target of 10 billion euros and paving the way to becoming the world's leading food solutions group," says Dominik Richter, co-founder and CEO of Hellofresh. In the third quarter of 2021, the company doubled the ongoing expansion of its production capacity "to create the right platform for strong long-term growth."

Hellofresh was founded in 2011 and sells cooking boxes that are delivered directly to your doorstep via online subscription. The company expects to deliver more than 900 million meals to its customers this year. Hellofresh claims to want to become the world's leading food solutions group in the future.