Concerns that the purchasing of meal kits might start to wane once pandemic lockdowns subsided appear to have been premature, with HelloFresh reporting a 45% increase in revenue in the third quarter of its financial year, to €1.41 billion.
The business saw 27.59 million orders placed via its platform in the quarter, up from 19.49 million in the corresponding period last year, equating to a 41.6% increase. Active customer numbers grew by 38.8% year-on-year.
Adjusted EBITDA was down, however, to €79.8 million (compared to €114.7 million last year), due to capacity ramp-up, inflation in some cost categories, and recent acquisitions.
Investment In Service Levels
“In Q3 2021 we have continued to invest heavily into our product and service levels, significantly improving the value proposition for our customers," commented Dominik Richter, co-founder and CEO of HelloFresh. "We have also doubled down on the ongoing expansion of our production capacity to create the right platform for strong long-term growth."
The group recently expanded its operations into Norway in July and Italy in October, while it also acquired Australian ready-to-eat firm Youfoodz and took a 10% stake in Russian meal-kit firm Chefmarket.
"With all of these investments in place, we remain focused on reaching our mid-term revenue target of €10 billion and on paving the way to becoming the world’s leading food solutions group," Richter added.
Updated Guidance For Full Year
The group issued updated guidance for 2021, based on 'strong revenue growth' through the year-to-date as well as higher than expected customer orders.
It said that it expects revenue growth for HelloFresh to be between 57% and 62% higher than last year on a constant currency basis, up from previous expectations of a 45% to 55% gain. EBITDA expectations have remained unchanged, however, coming in at between 8.25% and 10.25%.
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