Recipe box provider Gousto saw its sales jump 129% to £189m during 2020 as consumers looked for new meal options at home during the pandemic.
This helped the business achieve its first full year of profitability since launch, with underlying EBITDA coming in at £18.2m, compared to a loss of £9.1m the previous period.
Gousto revealed that its strong growth had continued into 2021, with over 25 million meals sold in the first quarter. The company attributed its strong performance to its ability to capitalise on the three consumer trends driving the UK grocery market – convenience, health and sustainability.
Gousto has been reinvesting the cash it generates to drive long-term growth and increase its share of the grocery market.
The company doubled its capacity in 2020, investing in its existing fulfilment centre in Lincolnshire and adding a second automated factory in December. Gousto plans to double capacity again by the end of 2022, adding two further fulfilment centres in Essex and Cheshire to meet accelerating demand.
The business grew its headcount from 500 to 1,000 during 2020, with plans to reach 2,000 staff by 2022.
Timo Boldt, founder & CEO of Gousto, said: “2020 was a transformational year, but we’re only scratching the surface of the huge opportunity ahead. 500 million evening meals are eaten each week in the UK and 76% of people cook from scratch.
“Gousto is working to unbundle the evening meal from the traditional grocery supply chain. We use software to upgrade both the supply chain and the customer experience of cooking from scratch, while riding the permanent structural shift from offline to online.
“This is just the beginning and I’m incredibly excited about the journey our amazing team is embarking on, which will see our customers benefit as we fulfil our vision to become the most loved way to eat at home.”
NAM Implications:
- Patently ticking the convenience, health and sustainability boxes…
- Worth a try?
- Meanwhile, ‘unbundling the evening meal from the traditional grocery supply chain’…
- …may cause the mults to retaliate?
