Supermarket chain Colruyt wants to further expand its range of home deliveries and is investing 27 million euros in Foodbag, the Belgian competitor of HelloFresh.
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Colruyt joins Smartmat, a Belgian company that delivers Foodbag and 15gram meal boxes to home and has recently started operating the online supermarket Rayon. The Belgian supermarket chain acquires 41.36 percent in Smartmat and puts 27.25 million euros on the table for this.
She takes over part of those shares from Korys, the investment group of the Colruyt family, as a result of which Colruyt and Korys jointly own about 83 percent of Smartmat. The Smartmat management team, including co-founder and general manager Stéphane Ronse, will remain on board.
With the investment, Colruyt hopes to strengthen its position in the battle for the online food consumer. The corona pandemic has further increased the stakes. The advance of, among others, flash deliverers (who deliver groceries to home within 15 minutes) and meal box deliverers is hitting the market. By joining forces with a ‘dynamic growth company’ such as Smartmat, Colruyt can complete its online product range and grow in home deliveries, says Tom De Prater, responsible for e-commerce food at Colruyt.
Anchor partnership
The German HelloFresh is the largest and best-known player in the meal boxes market, but Foodbag is advancing. By betting on local and seasonal ingredients, it, along with 15grams, holds about 30 percent of the market, according to market research firm Shopperware.
Colruyt Group and Smartmat have been working together since 2019. For example, the Foodbag ‘One Meal Box’ is for sale at OKay branches (Colruyt’s smaller local shops) and at a number of Collect&Go collection points. But by anchoring the partnership now, they can improve logistics expertise and the efficiency of online services, a press release said. Moreover, Smartmat and Colruyt share the same vision on sustainability, they emphasize.
Colruyt’s competitors are not sitting still either. Ahold Delhaize is planning an IPO for its subsidiary Bol.com this year (DS 16 november), to help grow its supermarkets’ online stores as well. And the Dutch Jumbo recently teamed up with the German flash delivery company Gorillas (DS 4 January).
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