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Meal delivery service From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Blue Apron Holdings, Inc. is an American ingredient-and-recipe meal kit company headquartered in New York City, operating its services exclusively in the United States.[4] It offers weekly boxes containing ingredients, which also includes suggested recipes that must be cooked by hand by the customer using the pre-ordered ingredients.
| |
| Type of business | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Traded as | NYSE: APRN (2017–2023) |
| Founded | August 2012 |
| Headquarters | New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Area served | United States |
| Founder(s) |
|
| Key people | |
| Industry | Meal kit |
| Revenue |  US$458 million (2022)[2] |
| Employees | 165 (2023)[3] |
| Parent | Wonder Group (2023–present) |
| Subsidiaries | Blue Apron Market BN Ranch |
| URL | www |
As of September 2016, the company had shipped 8 million meal servings.[5] In June 2017, the company went public through an initial public offering.[6] Since November 2023, Blue Apron operates as a subsidiary of food delivery startup Wonder Group.[3]
Matt Salzberg, Ilia Papas and Matt Wadiak first began sending customers boxes containing the ingredients to cook recipes in August 2012, packing and shipping the first 30 orders themselves from a commercial kitchen in Long Island City.[4] In May 2014, the company announced that it would be launching a fulfillment center in Richmond, California.[7] In November 2014, Blue Apron launched Blue Apron Market, a store featuring kitchen tools and cookware.[8] In December 2014, the company opened another fulfillment center in Jersey City, New Jersey.[9]
After the opening of its third fulfillment center in Arlington, Texas in June 2015, the company began shipping to the contiguous United States.[10]
In September 2015, Blue Apron launched Blue Apron Wine, a direct-to-consumer wine delivery service that sends customers six 500 ml bottles per month.[11] The wines, made specifically for Blue Apron, are purchased directly from vineyards and sent directly to customers.[12]
In October 2016, BuzzFeed reported a history of safety and health violations at the company's Richmond, California distribution center. The company attributed the problems to operational issues while scaling up during its early days.[13]
In February 2017, the company announced that it would be opening a fulfillment center in Linden, New Jersey.[14]
On June 29, 2017, Blue Apron had its initial public offering of 30 million shares of class A common stock (ticker APRN) priced at $10 per share; it is the first U.S. meal-kit company to go public.[6]
Since going public, Wall Street has cut Blue Apron's stock price in half. By October 2017, prior to its next earnings report, the company had announced a company-wide realignment, 6% of employees laid off at both the corporate offices and fulfillment centers, estimated to be a couple of hundred jobs.[15][16]
On November 30, 2017, Blue Apron announced that Brad Dickerson would be replacing Salzberg as CEO; Salzberg will remain chairman.[17]
As of March 26, 2018, Blue Apron has lost 81.4% of its market value since its initial public offering.[18]
In May 2018, Blue Apron began selling 4 servings meal kits at 17 Costco locations in California, marking the company's entrance into physical retail[19] and Tim Bensley, formerly of Acosta Sales & Marketing, entered as CFO.[20]
On August 2, 2018, Blue Apron, announced the total number of customers who paid for a meal delivery had a decrease of 24 percent during the second quarter of 2018 compared to the previous quarter, and the company also indicated total orders had slipped by 23 percent.[21]
In April 2019, Brad Dickerson was succeeded by Linda Findley Kozlowski as the new CEO of the company. However, Dickerson remained at the company as an adviser.[22]
In November 2020, Alan Blake was succeeded by Charlean Gmunder as the new COO. Blake left the company in June to lead operations at Kettle Cuisine.[23]
In September 2023, food delivery startup Wonder Group agreed to acquire the company for $103 million,[24] which was finalized couple of months later.[3]
The company and other meal kit companies have been criticized for creating excess packaging waste from the individually packaged ingredients.[25] As of 2017, Blue Apron partners with farms that limit agricultural chemicals and promote soil health through crop rotation to grow specialty crops for the company.[26]
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