Mealkits have been a phenomenon in Canada since 2013. ChefsPlate dominiated the industry since the beginning and shortly after HelloFresh entered the market and GoodFoods emerged. Canadians are a nation of eating out. Wheter it’s dining at a restaurant, fastfood, UberEats, mealkits or prepared meals, Canadians seem to truly enjoy the convenience and quality of eating out and ordering in.
Covid lockdowns increased sales in a major way
Even produce, meat and fish companies like Mama Earth, Papa Earth, Butcherbox and Trulocal have nothing but success in the Canadian market. Once the covid lockdowns started in 2020 and Canadians were locked up in their homes, this is when ordering in meal kits, prepared meals and meat delivery services really took off.
All major food delivery companies saw a massive increase in sales, some of them even went tenfold. Also Voila Groceries emerged from this market trend. The trend was also strongly reflected the stock price of HelloFresh and GoodFoods.
Meal kits are here to stay
Canadians wanted to keep eating quality food, wanted to keep sourcing local and wanted to have a fine dine experience at home. Even though the pandamic lockdowns are done now, meal kits and meat delivery services are here to stay. In a way the lockdowns have sort of ‘normalized’ ordering food online and getting it delivered. Even though the phenomena has been around for a while, the process is now know to a larger audience and more people have had an experience with a meal kit or butcherbox.
Meal kits companies improved their operations and packaging
The big rise in market share also allowed meal kit companies to expand to other provinces and cities due to demand and perfected their delivery systems and operations. It urged Lowlaws to speed up their delivery service Voila and once launched it took of like a rocket.
Another important improved for the whole industry was packaging. Whereas first more plastic and foam containers were used, the industry saw a big shift towards more sustainable, biodegradable and recyclable packaging.
