You've probably seen the numerous social media adverts and it's probably popped-up in your inbox from time to time. It claims to cut down costs and also saves you from having to shop around. It seems ideal, especially for students, but does it sound too good to be true?
If you've been tempted, you may have used the award-winning meal-kit. Based in Berlin, Germany, HelloFresh was founded in 2011 and is the largest meal-kit provider in the United States. It also operates in Australia, Canada, Demark and in most Western Europe countries such as the UK.
HelloFresh started to deliver meal-kits to Brits back in 2012 - just a year after being launched. In fact, HellloFresh was one of the earliest companies to sell and deliver meal-kits. Despite having 250,000 subscribers in March 2015, the company was still not turning a profit. Last year, the company delivered one billion meals despite the world-wide lockdown and has a net revenue 6 billion euros.
With over 20,000 employees, HelloFresh recorded 7.2 million active customers in the fourth quarter last year.
Picking the recipes you want is an easy task as well. HelloFresh provide a range of meals that they can supply for that week in which you can choose depending on your plan. After choosing from such a varied range, all you have to do is wait and it'll be delivered straight to your door. Once on your door-step, you need to quickly put the items into your fridge or freezer to store them until use.
The business model behind the company is that they prepare and weigh ingredients needed for a particular meal and deliver them to customers who must cook recipes using the meal cards provided. On average, these meals take around 30 to 40 minutes and it typically provides two to five two-person meals a week.
The recipes, shown above, can be tailored to suit individual preferences with plenty of options avaliable.
One student who had been tempted to try out HelloFresh was Rachel Alsop. The 22 year old Digital Media and Interaction Design student has been using the service for well over a month. For four nights a week, she cooks meals that she chooses from the website.
Rachel has no plans to stop using HelloFresh and cites it as the main reason as to why she's been eating "any form of a good meal for the past few weeks."
It also allows her time to focus on her studies rather than worrying about going food shopping and what she would have for dinner.
Rachel has actually taken some inspiration from the recipes that are provided with the meal kits and on a recent trip to Bristol to visit her father, she cooked a few of the recipes she's cooked previously.
For students who clearly don't have the time to go around their local supermarket to do food shops and if they're looking to cut costs, HelloFresh may be an option for them. Students won't know until they tried the service to see how it impacts them.
For all that they know, after a while of using the meal-kit, they may become more knowledge and confident in their ability to go out and pick items and design meals for themselves. Initiallly, learn the basics and then build on the foundation. Not only will students pick up skills, they will have recipes and meals to fall back on.
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