The most interesting stories in supermarket digital retail and online grocery, this week.
1. UK-based recipe meal box company Gousto raises another $150M to fuel long-term growth
Profitable: Gousto is the UK’s only profitable B Corp UK unicorn.
Sustainable: Now a B Corp, Gousto claims 23% less carbon emissions on it’s meals than equivalent supermarket meals.
Competitive: Gousto offers 60 weekly meals, more than competitors, and is looking to capitalise on the “permanent shift to online grocery”. UK supermarket Waitrose & Partners has teamed update with competing recipe box business Mindful Chef for a trial of its service
Automation: Some of the funds will go to building a 5th AI-driven and automated fulfilment centre, near Birmingham.
2. McKinsey & Company calls for online grocery operations optimisation
Speed only woks in cities: Delivery vans works for all populations densities if delivery is for 2 days from order. If you want to offer for rapid delivering, you either need higher population densities or large baskets. [Great graph here] https://lnkd.in/dX7Mce9v
Pricing spectrum: Picnic Technologies in The Netherlands offers zero fees for deliver with it’s scheduled ‘milk round’ delivery. While Whole Foods Market charges $9.95 for deliver through Amazon Prime in the US
The pain of Substitutions: IRI says 11 percent of edible packaged consumer products will be out of stock in store. In a pick-from-store model, 10 to 15 percent of orders potentially require substitution.
3. Italy and Spain not fans of France’s Nutriscore
The French government-backed food traffic light labelling system faces challenges to Eurozone adoption
Italy (and now Spain?) raising concerns: “I thought it was a lost battle,” said Italy’s Food and Farming Minister Stefano Patuanelli in the Italian parliament in December. “Now Spain has communicated that it has totally changed its position, therefore it is against Nutri-Score. France is having major internal problems,” he claimed.
Italy’s ‘battery’ alternative: Italy suggests it’s own Nutrinform labelling system, which shows nutrition ‘batteries’ being filled up, should be adopted across Europe.
Politics Vs Consumer interest? “All this talk is for purely political reasons, and is a total denial of the interest of consumers, public health and the scientific work that demonstrates the benefits of Nutri-Score,” said Serge Hercberg, a professor of nutritional science at the University of Sorbonne Paris Nord, who led the team that invented Nutri-Score.
