Busy consumers who want home-cooked healthy meals but don't have the time to shop are becoming more attracted to the convenience of meal kit delivery services. Consumers who subscribe to these services typically receive a box containing fresh, prepared ingredients for one or more meals and the corresponding recipes. They usually receive them once a week and some even have same-day delivery. As the meal kit sector continues to grow, so does supply chain flexibility and meal kit delivery services demand. In order to succeed, subscription meal kit companies not only need to offer good, quality meals and an intuitive user interface, but also must have excellent supply chain management skills. Many services promise some mix of local, fresh, reduced-calorie, gluten-free, or organic products and may provide hard to find items. Because of the growth of food home deliveries, the distance between stops has been reduced and the number of items delivered to each stop has been increased. This lowers the carrier’s cost resulting in overall lower shipping costs. The attention to fresh ingredients is often ideal for consumers looking for healthy, tasty meal alternatives with many delivery options. Local farmers also benefit from the increased ongoing demand for their perishable foods.

1. C o n s u m e r t a s t e p r e f e r e n c e s a n d t h e h o m e
d e l i v e r y f o o d c u l t u r e
“ORDER-IN”
Subscription Meal Kits
& Meal Home Delivery

2. Meal Kits
Busy consumers who want home-cooked healthy meals but don't have
the time to shop are becoming more attracted to the convenience of
meal kit delivery services.
Consumers who subscribe to these services typically receive a box
containing fresh, prepared ingredients for one or more meals and the
corresponding recipes. They usually receive them once a week and
some even have same-day delivery.
As the meal kit sector continues to grow, so does supply chain flexibility
and meal kit delivery services demand.
"The everything-in-a-box kits promise convenience by eliminating the need to
plan meals, find recipes, and shop for groceries,"
- according to Packaged Facts' April 2016 report, Meal Kit Delivery Services in the U.S.

3. In order to succeed, subscription meal kit
companies not only need to offer good,
quality meals and an intuitive user
interface, but also must have excellent
supply chain management skills.
Many services promise some mix of local,
fresh, reduced-calorie, gluten-free, or
organic products and may provide hard to
find items.
Because of the growth of food home
deliveries, the distance between stops has
been reduced and the number of items
delivered to each stop has been
increased. This lowers the carrier’s cost
resulting in overall lower shipping costs.
The attention to fresh ingredients is often
ideal for consumers looking for healthy,
tasty meal alternatives with many delivery
options. Local farmers also benefit from
the increased ongoing demand for their
perishable foods.

4. Last Mile Delivery
Meal delivery and meal kit companies are disrupting the food retail
market with a simple idea: provide just-in-time products for consumers
by taking on the last mile logistics challenge.
The last mile delivery challenges encountered by many of these
companies lies within their supply chain processes and technology can
help. It is easy to deliver meals from a local kitchen by using software to
optimize the last mile delivery process.
Meal delivery companies are essentially restaurants offering little more
than a menu, delivery service, and a box. As a result, they must also
cater to local tastes in order to appeal to consumer demand.
The market relies on a premium paid for the convenience of last mile
delivery.

5. It is difficult to promise local ingredients without opening local kitchens,
or transporting all the ingredients to a single distribution center.
Companies may also struggle to obtain sufficient quantities of different
ingredients if they limit themselves to local sources of supply.
One solution may be networks of distribution centers that pull from
farmers located within several hundred miles of each other.
Once the ingredients arrive at the facilities, they need to be sorted,
prepared, packaged, and assembled into meal kits. Meal kit companies
need robust systems to be able to handle inbound goods and
ingredients, assemble, package, and keep the products hot or cold and
secure.
In addition, all of the functions have to occur at an extremely fast pace.
Ingredients

6. Food Safety
With any food delivery, even meal kits, safety is always a primary
concern.
If an ingredient in a meal kit later proves to have carried a health or
safety risk, the companies in the supply chain need to be able to quickly
trace it back to the source and to destinations forward to the consumer.
Having access to real time, accurate information and product
traceability is essential and can save lives. The track & trace
functionality in the supply chain software that is used needs to be
robust.
This is critical not only to eliminate the risk of illness or death, but also to
protect the business and brand. The more targeted a safety recall, the
less of an impact it will have on the respective businesses.

7. Demand Planning
The subscription meal kit delivery business model can enhance demand
planning. Subscription models allow for the most accurate forecasting
and planning. This is because consumers usually choose their meals
several days in advance, letting the food companies know how much of
each ingredient to order.
When companies engage directly with consumers, it provides them with
direct demand signals. Industry leading companies should be able to
respond and adjust their supply chains more quickly than grocery stores
or restaurants.
Blue Apron plans its menus one year in advance. It can predict demand
for each ingredient, and work directly with its network of farmers to grow
the crops that will end up on its menus. Providing a source of
predictable demand for these farms allows them to produce what is
most effective on their land.
http://www.inboundlogistics.com/cms/article/meal-delivery-services-youve-got-to-be-kitting-me/

8. In 2017, Amazon expanded its offerings and focused on testing its new
meal kit, food delivery service via Amazon Prime. Delivering meals would
build on the company’s AmazonFresh service, which has been delivering
groceries to customers’ homes for a decade.
The pioneering food-prep tech, known as microwave assisted thermal
sterilization, or MATS, was developed by researchers at Washington
State University and is being brought to market by a startup called 915
Labs. The method involves placing sealed packages of food in
pressurized water and heating them with microwaves for several
minutes.
This is not like traditional processing methods, where packages are in
pressure cookers for up to an hour until both bacteria and nutrients are
gone. These food products retain their natural flavor and texture. The
food items can sit on a shelf for a year, which would make them ideal for
Amazon’s storage and delivery business model.

9. The Future of Meal Kits
The long-term prospects for meal and meal kit delivery services are
positive. The market hit $1.5 billion in sales in 2016, a number that is
projected to grow to multiple billions over the next five years, according
to Packaged Facts.
Meal kit companies have the potential to disrupt the restaurant industry,
retail industry and grocery industry. Their customers look forward to
cooking restaurant-quality meals at home, with none of the planning or
shopping that most home-cooked meals require.
Because consumers of all ages are comfortable using technology to
make purchases and want a lower-cost alternative to eating out, meal kit
delivery services are thriving, satisfying consumers' growing taste for
fresh, local food.
http://www.inboundlogistics.com/cms/article/meal-delivery-services-youve-got-to-be-kitting-me/

10. Contact Us
Sources: http://www.inboundlogistics.com/cms/article/meal-delivery-services-youve-got-to-be-kitting-me/
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-amazon-com-food/amazon-looks-to-new-food-technology-for-home-delivery-idUSKBN1AR11X
https://www.supplychaindive.com/news/meal-delivery-startup-close-food-retail-investors/443824/