Go back in time 15 years and nobody had invented the concept of a meal kit. Bundling up ingredients for specific recipes and delivering them to consumers around the world just didn’t exist.
Today, at-home meal kits are a multi-billion dollar industry. HelloFresh, in particular, has become well known across the world for helping millions of customers explore new ingredients, recipes, and cuisines.
They’ve served more than 2 billion meals in the last half-decade. That’s a lot of food.
Let’s explore a few interesting HelloFresh statistics, shedding light on the global meal delivery service.
Page Contents
The Start Of HelloFresh
When was HelloFresh founded?
HelloFresh was founded in November 2011 in Berlin, Germany. It was rebranded from the original name of Jade 1314.
Who founded HelloFresh?
The HelloFresh founding team was made of Dominik Richter, Thomas Griesel and Jessica Schultz (née Nilsson).
At the time, they were funded by a German startup incubator called Rocket Internet. Dominik came from experience at Goldman Sachs in Finance, whilst Thomas had experience as a strategy consultant. Jessica also came from a corporate strategy background, leaving the founding team without any experience in the food industry.
You can also refer to our history of HelloFresh detailing the story from the very start,
HelloFresh in 2023
What countries does HelloFresh operate in?
Today, HelloFresh operates in 19 countries around the globe. These are:
- Germany
- United Kingdom
- Australia
- France
- Austria
- United States
- Belgium
- Canada
- Switzerland
- Luxembourg
- New Zealand
- Sweden
- Denmark
- Norway
- Italy
- Japan
- Spain
- Ireland
What brands does HelloFresh operate?
Over the last 10 years, HelloFresh has expanded its offering to include 6 different brands. These offer different types of meal experiences, including ready-made meals. They’re often found competing in the same markets as the original HelloFresh brand. The 6 brands are:
- HelloFresh – The original meal kit service, delivering premium ingredients and recipes.
- Green Chef – Offers meal kits specially catered towards special, or restricted diets.
- EveryPlate – A budget version of HelloFresh offering simpler recipes suitable for families.
- Chefs Plate – Offers meals that can all be cooked within 15 – 20 minutes.
- Factor75 – Fresh prepared meals available in the USA.
- YouFoodz – Fresh prepared meals available in Australia.
Is HelloFresh an environmentally friendly company?
HelloFresh has announced that they are now the first global carbon-neutral meal kit company after offsetting 100% of their direct carbon emissions.
How much packaging is used in HelloFresh deliveries?
HelloFresh has calculated that 97 grams of cardboard, plus 38 grams of plastic, are used to serve every single meal.
HelloFresh Financial Performance
HelloFresh Revenue Growth
HelloFresh has seen increased global revenue every single year since it was founded in 2011.
Here are the exact figures for each year:
| Year | Revenue, € (Millions) |
|---|---|
| 2012 | 2 |
| 2013 | 14 |
| 2014 | 170 |
| 2015 | 307 |
| 2016 | 597 |
| 2017 | 905 |
| 2018 | 1279 |
| 2019 | 1809 |
| 2020 | 3749 |
| 2021 | 5993 |
| 2022 | 7607 |
Marketing Expenses (% of Revenue)
With the meal kit business model, marketing expenses make up a very significant portion of costs. HelloFresh spends an incredible amount of money on advertising, local campaigns, affiliates and welcome discounts. Let’s see how that looks in absolute figures.
| Year | Marketing Expenses, € (Millions) |
|---|---|
| 2016 | 157.4 |
| 2017 | 239.7 |
| 2018 | 330.1 |
| 2019 | 405.2 |
| 2020 | 469.7 |
| 2021 | 861.6 |
| 2022 | 1284.2 |
HelloFresh spent €1284 Million on marketing expenses in 2022. Against revenue of over €7.5 Billion, that resulted in marketing expenses costing 16.9% of revenue.
Let’s see how that’s changed over the last few years:
| Year | Marketing Expenses, % of Revenue |
|---|---|
| 2016 | 26.4 |
| 2017 | 26.5 |
| 2018 | 27.4 |
| 2019 | 28.7 |
| 2020 | 12.5 |
| 2021 | 14.4 |
| 2022 | 16.9 |
It’s amazing to see the impact of the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, over halving the cost of marketing compared to global revenue.
HelloFresh Profit Figures
As with most Startups, HelloFresh spent the first 7 years of operation making a net loss. HelloFresh first made a profit in 2019. The figures displayed represent AEBITDA and brackets ‘()’ represent a loss.
| Year | Profit, € (Millions) |
|---|---|
| 2016 | (82.6) |
| 2017 | (70.1) |
| 2018 | (54.5) |
| 2019 | 46.5 |
| 2020 | 505.2 |
| 2021 | 527.6 |
| 2022 | 477.4 |
To visualise how insane that profit growth was in 2020, check out this graph:
The Growth of HelloFresh
HelloFresh Order Growth
Alongside strong revenue growth, HelloFresh has seen constantly increasing order volume every year since 2012. This has resulted in HelloFresh handling over 125 Million orders in 2022.
| Year | Orders (Millions) |
|---|---|
| 2012 | 0.04 |
| 2013 | 0.3 |
| 2014 | 1.6 |
| 2015 | 6.6 |
| 2016 | 12.39 |
| 2017 | 18.95 |
| 2018 | 27.10 |
| 2019 | 37.50 |
| 2020 | 74.30 |
| 2021 | 117.32 |
| 2022 | 125.13 |
Delivering Millions of Meals
Unsurprisingly, the increase in orders correlates with huge increases in the number of meals HelloFresh have delivered. In 2021 alone, HelloFresh delivered over 1 billion meals. That’s a lot of food.
| Year | Meals Delivered (Millions) |
|---|---|
| 2016 | 90.93 |
| 2017 | 137.43 |
| 2018 | 198.4 |
| 2019 | 281.1 |
| 2020 | 601.2 |
| 2021 | 964.0 |
| 2022 | 1054.5 |
How much food waste does HelloFresh create?
Inevitably, when delivering millions of meals, there will be food waste. This happens at various points in the supply & packing processes, as low-quality foods are discarded or there are surplus ingredients after all customers have been served.
| Year | Food Waste (Tons) |
|---|---|
| 2019 | 1103 |
| 2020 | 1328 |
| 2021 | 3852 |
| 2022 | 2345 |
Food waste increased dramatically in 2021 alongside the increase in orders. However, it appears HelloFresh have improved their handling of fresh ingredients and significantly reduced food waste in 2022 despite another increase in meals served.
How many employees does HelloFresh have?
The total number of HelloFresh employees in 2022 was listed as 21,400 which is a figure that undoubtedly continues to grow. This is incredible growth from just over 1,000 employees in 2016. This figure includes head office staff, as well as staff at the HelloFresh packing facilities.
| Year | Employees |
|---|---|
| 2016 | 1331 |
| 2017 | 2715 |
| 2018 | 4276 |
| 2019 | 4477 |
| 2020 | 11860 |
| 2021 | 14635 |
| 2022 | 19595 |
Data Sources
We hope this list of HelloFresh statistics was useful. All of the data presented has been sourced from my own experience, along with the following sites:
HelloFresh Investor Publications – https://ir.hellofreshgroup.com/websites/hellofresh/English/2000/publications.html
Capital Markets Day Presentation – https://ir.hellofreshgroup.com/download/companies/hellofresh/Capital_Markets_Day/CMD_Final_Presentation.pdf
Inc.com Article – ‘The worlds most ruthless startup’ – https://www.inc.com/magazine/201808/burt-helm/hellofresh.html
About Food Box Mate
Food Box Mate is an independent website run by a meal kit enthusiast based in Australia. No research is sponsored by HelloFresh, and I endeavor to provide the most accurate information possible. If you spot any issues, please contact me directly at david@foodboxmate.com.
Please feel free to use any statistics listed on this page, with attribution appreciated.
I’ve also reviewed HelloFresh in Australia, which you might like to check out.
