Chef’d meal kit service opened its doors in April 2015 and gained legions of fans before closing them for good on July 16, 2018. According to the company’s founder and CEO Kyle Ransford, Chef’d had to cease operations due to unexpected funding difficulties.
Only a week after the company’s shutdown comes the news of a Newport Beach investment firm acquiring Chef’d assets, including everything from the brand name to the company’s plant and equipment. The investment firm in question is True Food Innovations, which has its own meal kit business called True Chef.
We were curious to discover what the firm’s plans regarding Chef’d are and here is what we found out.
Focusing On Retail
Although not all meal kit deliveries are struggling to get by, the shift from online ordering and home delivery to retail is becoming more and more conspicuous. Thus, it is no wonder that True Food Innovations plans to focus on the retail portion of the Chef’d business.
According to Robert Jones, a former Chef’d executive and current employee of True Food Innovations, the home delivery aspect of Chef’d is not something the firm is interested in. The idea is to strengthen the company’s position in the retail channel and expand the True Chef business.
Just like Chef’d meal kits, which became available at retail stores such as Costco, Tops Markets, and Walgreens in May and June, True Chef meal kits recently hit the shelves of Costco and Bashas’ grocery chains.
As more and more meal kit services enter the retail arena to stay profitable, it seems that the essence of the meal kit concept is getting lost along the way. After all, it is the convenience of having the freshest and finest ingredients delivered to your home that made meal kits so attractive in the first place. We hope that True Food Innovations will put Chef’d assets to good use and keep the brand name alive and untarnished.