Coles launches new meal kits
Coles has expanded into the meal-kit business with its new offerings to compete with HelloFresh and Marley Spoon.
On Wednesday, the supermarket giant launched its What’s for Dinner range, with 48 recipe-based bundles of ingredients that shoppers can add to their online order.
The prices of each kit vary between $15 and $30, with each kit containing two to four serves. Also available are meat-free options, including broccoli fried rice and ricotta and spinach pasta.
Coles chief marketing officer Lisa Ronson said the range was developed based on one of the supermarket’s “biggest customer studies ever”.
According to the research, 55 per cent of Australians only decide what they want to have for dinner on the day, with ingredient preparation being the biggest pain point.
“We have created meal plans to help customers with some of the biggest challenges they face preparing dinner every night – from lack of time to cook from scratch to kids who turn their noses up at healthy options, and boredom with cooking the same handful of dishes every week because it seems too hard to try something new,” Ronson said.
Retail analyst Neil Rechlin said he is not surprised that Coles is entering the fresh food delivery market, which has grown significantly in the past five years and shifting customers away from supermarkets.
“Customers are buying Marley Spoon and HelloFresh, and Woolworths and Coles have been losing business to those companies,” Rechlin told 9News.
“This is a way to keep customers in the Coles store.”
In June, Woolworths announced that it would invest $30 million into Marley Spoon over the next five years, which will lead to the supermarket owning a nine per cent stake in the meal kit company.
Last month, Woolworths said it will add an extra $4 million into the investment, bringing the total amount to $34 million.