The meal delivery space is heating up, with HelloFresh bringing its Factor brand to Canada.
Factor was launched in 2012 and acquired by HelloFresh in 2020. It claims to be the U.S.’s largest ready-to-heat meal delivery service and since being acquired, Factor says its compounded annual revenue growth has been over 100%.
Factor is now available across Ontario, with a national roll-out planned for the coming months for its chef-prepared, dietitian-approved meals made from scratch.
According to Factor Canada general manager Conal Gould, the brand is about convenience without compromise. “Canadians are busier than ever, and the time and energy it can take to plan and prepare healthy meals is often one of the first things to go,” Gould notes.
Every customer has the opportunity to participate in a complimentary 20-minute call with an in-house dietitian, and dishes like Vegetable Ratatouille with Mascarpone Polenta, for example, are specifically crafted to fit a wide variety of on-trend diets.
New meal offerings are added weekly, alongside extras like cold-pressed juices.
Craft Public Relations is helping to support the launch.
The meal kit space is heavily contested: stateside, Nestle is scaling back its presence in prepared foods, reducing its ownership stake in Freshly, which just announced the layoff of hundreds of staffers.
According to 2022 Dalhousie University and Caddle insights, 8.4% of Canadians subscribe to a meal kit service provider, down from 12.8% at the pandemic’s onset. As Dalhousie researcher Sylvain Charlebois has pointed out, customer retention remains a key issue: 22.5% of Canadians have ceased using a meal kit and a mere 3% are fully committed to the service.
