Blue Apron

Blue Apron Inc. is an American ingredient-and-recipe meal kit service which exclusively operates in the United States.[3] The weekly boxes contain ingredients and also include suggested recipes that must be cooked by hand by the customer using the pre-ordered ingredients.

Blue Apron Inc.
Type of businessPublic
Traded asNYSE: APRN (Class A)
FoundedAugust 2012 (2012-08)
HeadquartersNew York City, New York, U.S.
Area servedUnited States
Founder(s)Matt Wadiak
Matt Salzberg
Ilia Papas
Key people
  • Matt Salzberg
  • (Co-founder and Chairman)
  • Linda Kozlowsk[1]
  • (CEO)
  • Ilia Papas
  • (Co-founder and CTO)
  • Jared Cluff
  • (CMO)
IndustryMeal kit
Revenue$667.6 M (2018) [2]
Employees2,343
SubsidiariesBlue Apron Market
BN Ranch
URLwww.blueapron.com

As of September 2016, the company had shipped 8 million meal servings.[4] In June 2017, the company went public with an initial public offering.[5]

History
Blue Apron meal kit shipping box
Blue Apron meal kit ingredients

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.[6] 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 500ml 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.[5]

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]

Environmental impact

The company and other meal kit companies have been criticized for creating excess packaging waste from the individually packaged ingredients.[24] Blue Apron partners with farms that limit agricultural chemicals and promote soil health through crop rotation to grow specialty crops for the company.[25]

References
  1. Garber, Jonathan (April 2, 2019). "Blue Apron is soaring after its CEO steps down (APRN)". Business Insider. Retrieved April 2, 2019.
  2. "Blue Apron Q4 2018 Earnings" (PDF), blue apron, retrieved 31 October 2019
  3. "Blue Apron's Got Big Plans For Dinner -- But So Do Its Hungry Rivals". Forbes. September 5, 2016.
  4. "Meal kits put to the test". The Times Herald. 2018-09-05. Retrieved 2017-07-05.
  5. "Meal-kit maker Blue Apron goes public, demand underwhelms as Amazon looms". Reuters. Retrieved June 29, 2017.
  6. Konrad, Alex (14 October 2015). "Blue Apron's Got Big Plans For Dinner -- But So Do Its Hungry Rivals". Forbes. Retrieved 10 May 2017.
  7. "Blue Apron Brings 400 Jobs to Bay Area". PRNewswire. 28 May 2014. Retrieved 10 May 2017.
  8. "Blue Apron Blows Past 1 Million Meals Sold Each Month, Looks To eCommerce". techcrunch. 2014-11-12. Retrieved 2017-07-05.
  9. "Blue Apron Shipping Over One Million Meals per Month". PRNewswire. 12 November 2014.
  10. "Blue Apron to Open Arlington Fulfillment Center". PRNewswire. 18 May 2015. Retrieved 10 May 2017.
  11. "Can booze lure me back to a meal-delivery service?". The Verge. Retrieved 2017-12-03.
  12. Athavaley, Anjali (21 September 2015). "Meal delivery start-up Blue Apron to sell wine, sees growth opportunity". Reuters. Retrieved 10 May 2017.
  13. O'Donovan, Caroline (2016-10-02). "The Not-So-Wholesome Reality Behind The Making of Your Meal Kit". BuzzFeed. Retrieved 2017-08-10.
  14. Iati, Maria (8 February 2017). "Blue Apron to bring 2K jobs to Linden facility". NJ.com. Retrieved 10 May 2017.
  15. "Form 8K". SEC. Oct 18, 2017.
  16. Lynley, Matthew (Oct 18, 2017). "Blue Apron is laying off hundreds of employees". Tech Crunch.
  17. Roof, Katie. "Blue Apron loses its CEO". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2017-12-01.
  18. Selway, Josh. "Blue Apron Stock Hits New Low as Square Gets Huge Price-Target Hike - Schaeffer's Investment Research".
  19. Peterson, Hayley (5 March 2018). "Costco now sells Blue Apron — and the meal kits are 30% off". Business Insider. Retrieved 5 March 2018.
  20. "Blue Apron Appoints Tim Bensley as Chief Financial Officer". Blue Apron. 2018-05-17./
  21. Reuters Staff (2018-08-02). "Blue Apron shares sink as customers ditch its meal-kits". Reuters. Retrieved 2018-08-03.
  22. Business, Danielle Wiener-Bronner, CNN. "Blue Apron CEO and CTO are leaving the company". CNN. Retrieved 2019-05-16.
  23. "Blue Apron taps United Airlines catering exec as COO". Grocery Dive. Retrieved 2020-12-17.
  24. Cushing, Ellen (27 November 2015). "These Are The Trashy Consequences of Blue Apron Delivery". Buzzfeed. Retrieved 31 May 2017.
  25. Preston, Marguerite (12 January 2017). "How Sustainable Is Your Mail-Order Meal Kit?". Rodale's. Archived from the original on 11 August 2017. Retrieved 10 May 2017.
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