Recipe boxes: Recipe boxes: the ‘new normal’ the ‘new for at-home dining? for at-home

By Leonie Jarrett

As we adjust to life with coronavirus, our behaviours and habits are changing quickly. Start! spoke to Gousto’s CEO and Founder Timo Boldt (pictured, right), to find out how the recipe-box industry is capitalising on this new way of life.

Recipe boxes are one of the few business models to have experienced a sharp rise in consumer demand during lockdown, with the Financial Times reporting that ‘consumers have been looking for something to do as well as something to eat’ (May 2020).

Even before the pandemic pushed much of the developed world to do their grocery shopping online, the UK’s recipe-box market was expected to exceed £1.5bn by 2022 (Hexa, 2019). It now looks like this forced adoption will accelerate structural change in the sector by many years.

In the middle of the crisis, Gousto – the UK’s leading subscription recipe-box company – announced that it had raised an additional £33m in a funding round, and plans to rapidly recruit 400 new staff. This investment takes the total funds raised by Gousto in the last eight years (from Perwyn Private Equity, Canaccord Genuity, Unilever Ventures, BGF Ventures, MMC Ventures and Joe Wicks of The Body Coach fame - pictured, left) to over £130m.

Here, Timo Boldt shares his thoughts on the changing market environment his company is operating in, and why he thinks consumers are flocking to recipe boxes.

Less waste

As Gousto delivers the precise ingredients needed to make each recipe, there is 0% food waste at household level. We operate at nearly the same level of food waste at our fulfilment site by using artificial intelligence to predict order quantities, so we never order in more than we need.

Not only is this an important value for Gousto, but we know it’s hugely important to our customers.

The rise of e-commerce

We’ve seen a huge rise in e-commerce over many years as people become busier and more time-poor. This was an existing trend pre-coronavirus, continuing to grow at pace, and COVID-19 has just accelerated the growth we knew was coming. New data from British market research company Kantar shows online grocery sales now account for 10.2% of overall grocery sales, versus 7.4% last month (April 2020). There will be a variety of demographics turning to online shopping for the first time due to the pandemic – particularly as people opt for online food deliveries in place of supermarket visits.

A convenient experience

We know our customers love trying new foods and experiences. The convenience of knowing you have a weekly box delivered with all the fresh ingredients needed for your dinnertime relieves the pressure of weekly meal planning. Our easy-to-follow recipe cards, developed by expert chefs, make it easy for households to create impressive and delicious meals from scratch.

The ‘new normal’ for consumers

With many more people turning to the industry during the crisis, we suspect that customers that have a good experience will stay afterwards. Particularly as our industry continues to play into megatrends of health, convenience and sustainability, which are becoming even more relevant.

Social responsibility

The crisis has driven the food industry to work together like never before to ensure the safe and fair distribution of food. Alongside other grocery retailers, Gousto has been engaging with Defra (Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs) on a response effort for the vulnerable. We hope that our industry continues to work together to support the most vulnerable – collaborating to share insights and learnings means the industry will be stronger and better placed to support them should there be difficulty accessing produce.