WASHINGTON — Giant Food says meal kit delivery company HelloFresh is now available in Giant Food stores.
HelloFresh, the second-largest meal delivery kit company in the U.S. market behind Blue Apron, is branching out into retail stores and its partnership with Giant is one of several planned partnerships.
Giant is now carrying five exclusive meal kits in all 166 of its stores throughout Maryland, the District, Virginia and Delaware. Recipes include chickpea couscous, paprika chicken, peppercorn steak, Mediterranean-style chicken and home-style meatloaf.
The meal kits serve two, and cost between $14.99 and $19.99. They are found in the deli sections of Giant stores.
It is part of Giant’s expansion of prepared foods and convenience items it is carrying in its stores.
“As we look to expand our prepared food items at Giant, the partnership with HelloFresh was a natural fit,” said Tonya Herring, vice president of merchandising at Giant Food.
This year, Giant says it will be expanding prepared food and hot bars in stores. A growing number of its stores will offer quick-serve stations such as sushi, sandwiches, smoothies, grab-and-go items, like snacking options, salads, sandwiches and rotisserie chickens.
For HelloFresh, the partnership — which also includes Stop & Shop stores owned by Giant parent Ahold Delhaize USA — it is a new channel for sales. The partnership brings HelloFresh to more than 580 stores total.
“Grocers needed to profitably replace under-performing or low margin product categories and meet their customer demands for chef-curated, fresh and convenient meals,” said Tobias Hartmann, president for North America at HelloFresh. “Our line reduces the pressure on grocers to create these meals themselves and easily integrates into growing areas of their business such as online grocery and delivery.”
Blue Apron announced last month it would start selling its meal kits at Costco.
