This week’s blog series continues examining the meal kit industry through the lens of Sun Basket. Please see Sun Basket Post #1 (https://techtwire.tech.blog/2019/12/09/sun-basket-post-1-promotional-event/) to get an introduction to this company and its position in the marketplace.
The meal kit industry as a whole continues to experience massive growth since the early 2000s when it came into existence. Figure 1 shows this growth as well as Sun Basket’s growth as a contender in this space.
Figure 1. Meal kit industry growth over time with Sun Basket-specific revenue.
While Sun Basket has evolved into a leading meal kit provider, the company must keep an eye on emerging companies and how they’re conducting business. With more than 100 competitors and the high turnover of the market, new trends emerge and develop quickly. Therefore, the company must keep on its toes to maintain a strong position.
Additionally, with the anticipated growth from a successful marketing campaign (like the one detailed in last week’s posts), personnel, operations, cash flow, sales, and risk categories require sustained, close attention. All these areas remain vulnerable to various states of nature in the marketplace, including the political atmosphere, related economic policies, the willingness of consumers to invest in meal kit delivery, brick and mortar grocery stores buying meal kit brands to extend their product offerings, and recent facility decisions that will be explored later in this series.
While the increased demand in this sector doesn’t appear to be slowing, the industry is quite new and is susceptible to new trends and economic downturns that would likely constrict consumer spending. And with such major brands like Amazon and Walmart entering the meal kit arena, the large pockets and high consumer loyalty celebrated by these entering brands threatens to alter the landscape again.
Post #8 in this series explores a personnel analysis that could contribute to shoring up Sun Basket’s resilience in the meal kit industry.
Reference
Saxe, L. (2019, June 7). Sun Basket To Close Midwest Plant And Focus On Profitability [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/lizzysaxe/2019/06/07/sun-basket-to-close-midwest-plant-and-focus-on-profitability/#4c9a99951f74
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