- Nestle (OTCMKTS: NSRGY) announced recently that it is buying Freshly for up to $1.5 billion. These are the details about the deal.
Nestle (OTCMKTS: NSRGY) announced recently that it is buying Freshly, which is one of the leading fresh-prepared meal delivery services in the U.S. This deal values Freshly at $950 million with potential earnouts up to $550 million contingent on the successful growth of the business. This deal was signed and closed on October 30, 2020.
Launched in 2015, Freshly delivers a menu of fresh and chef-cooked meals to customers across the country. And this deal brings together Nestlé’s deep understanding of what and how people eat at home and world-class R&D capabilities with Freshly’s highly specialized consumer analytics platform and distribution network to fuel growth opportunities within the Freshly business and across Nestlé’s portfolio.
Nestlé had purchased about a 16% stake in Freshly in 2017 as a strategic move to evaluate and test the burgeoning market. Freshly is known for pioneering the direct-to-consumer prepared meal delivery channel and its use of standard-setting technology and analytics — which will build upon Nestlé’s strong base of innovation. Growing year-over-year since launching in 2015, Freshly is now shipping over 1 million meals per week to customers in 48 states. The company’s 2020 forecasted sales are $430 million.
KEY QUOTES:
“We are excited to welcome Freshly to the Nestlé family. Consumers are embracing ecommerce and eating at home like never before. It’s an evolution brought on by the pandemic but taking hold for the long term. Freshly is an innovative, fast-growing, food-tech startup, and adding them to the portfolio accelerates our ability to capitalize on the new realities in the U.S. food market and further positions Nestlé to win in the future.”
— Nestlé USA Chairman and CEO Steve Presley
“We are extremely excited to expand our relationship with Nestlé. Our mission is to make eating healthy easy by bringing nutritious, high quality meals directly to customers’ homes. Convenience and nutrition are driving forces in the future of food, and our becoming a part of the world’s largest food company confirms that. With Nestlé, we will have access to resources, research and development, and years of experience that we can tap into to catapult our growth plans and move closer to our goal of being in every household in America.”
— Freshly CEO Michael Wystrach
“At Nestlé we know the at-home food market and we know how to win there. With the acquisition of Freshly we are strengthening our position in the U.S. and expanding our ability to deliver a wide variety of delicious food to our consumers when and where they want. Whether purchasing our products from the comfort of their homes, in retail stores or through social commerce, we will continue to provide them with unbeatable convenience, choice and ease of purchase.”
— Nestlé CEO Zone Americas Laurent Freixe
