A new partnership with supermarket giant Woolworths means huge growth potential for the subscription-based weekly meal kit service Marley Spoon. Kim Berry spoke with its CEO Fabien Siegel about the business and its future.
When consumers walk into a supermarket, all the fresh ingredients are there for the taking. And yet, Marley Spoon CEO Fabien Siegel says, they end up cooking the same three dishes. This, he says is the beauty of Marley Spoon.
The weekly meal kit business offers customers 20 new recipes every week, delivered to you in exact portion sizes. “It is a very flexible personal solution. Your box is based on what you need and what you like,” Siegel says.
“People love it because it’s healthy to cook from scratch compared to eating frozen food or takeaway. It's nice to cook for your family, but most of all, it makes their lives easier.”
Siegel told Food & Drink Business the ability for Marley Spoon to serve customers directly like that is “a big point of difference” to supermarkets.
Manufacturing behavioural change
At the same time, the company does not see itself as a retailer or a supermarket. “We manufacture our product, we are more of a manufacturing business.
“We manufacture a consumer brand that people love and that allows us, because we’re direct to the consumer, to only buy food we already know we’re going to ship. That is a big difference because we don’t have to waste any food, unlike the supermarket that has thirty per cent of food lying around and then going to waste. Our food waste is less than one per cent,” Siegel says.
That is only possible because of how the company manufactures, he says.
