Who Invented the Pizza Delivery Box?
HelloFresh wilts, Instacart's new CFO, Uber Merchant Impact
We’re packing a whole lot of fun into today’s edition — pizza box histories, executive updates, HelloFresh drama — because Modern Delivery will be off for the rest of the week.
PS — will you be at VerdeXchange on Monday or Tuesday? Catch Modern Delivery Publisher Jonah Bliss on the “What is the New Right of Way- Where Digital Impacts the Physical” panel on the 14th.
Today:
HelloFresh Stock Keeps Wilting
Ex-Uberer Steps Up as Instacart CFO
Chart Time | Uber’s 2023 Merchant Impact
Pizza Packaging Patent Pondered
MEAL KITS | HelloFresh Rotting on the Vine?
Meal kit survivor HelloFresh isn’t looking particularly healthy these days, with the Berlin based company’s stock trading at around €5.64 ($6.09,) down more than 50% from early March and way off from the ~€34 mark it hit in late 2023, not to mention its unprecedented high of €95.06 during the depths of the pandemic. The company’s recently released Q1 did little to calm investors, even if the numbers aren’t looking as disastrous as its last update. While revenue inched up to €2.07 billion (thanks to higher AOV offsetting a drop in number of orders,) EBITDA fell 75% to €16.8 million.
The Big Picture: Per its investor presentation, the company is leaning on the ready-to-eat segment, led by its Factor brand, to restore HelloFresh to growth. While that biz is up 56% YoY, it hasn’t been enough to make up for the continued decline of its standard meal kit division, where revenue fell 7%. The loss of volume has led the company to close some production facilities, like its four year old plant in the Atlanta suburbs, where 727 workers lost their jobs after production fell from 30,000 meals per day to just 8k.
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FINANCE | Uber Vet Emily Reuter Named Instacart CFO
Instacart has named Emily Reuter as its new CFO, six months after she joined the 3PD as its VP of Finance. Prior to Instacart, Emily held a number of critical finance positions at Uber, including Head of Corporate Finance, CFO of Mobility, and Head of Investor Relations. CEO Fidji Simo thinks Reuter is the right person for the job, as Instacart hopes to keep growing while maintaining positive margins, noting that she “has a well-earned reputation for driving methodical, profitable growth on a massive scale. Her experience has given her a deep understanding of what it takes to lead teams with ambitious visions like ours in complex, ever-changing industries, and I am so excited to see the impact she’ll have here.”
The Big Picture: Reuter replaces Nick Giovanni, who joined Instacart back in 2021 after a long stint at Goldman Sachs. IC was a very different company three long years ago, as it was still led by Founder Apoorva Mehta and was about to raise its last private round of capital at an astounding $39 billion valuation. The company’s fortune fell to earth post-pandemic, with Giovanni eventually able to successfully guide the company to an IPO, albeit at around a $10 billion market cap. For her part, Reuter will get getting some facetime with the world when she does a fireside at the J.P. Morgan Global Technology, Media and Communications Conference next monday.
CHART TIME | Uber Eats’ Merchant Impact
Uber recently released its 2023 Merchant Impact Report, highlighting the value it drives to restaurants and retailers. Of the 81-83% of merchants that say UE has increased their revenue, the median increase is a healthy 10%.
HISTORY | Who Invented The Pizza Delivery Box?
Ah, the humble pizza box. When else has such a more modest creation kept so many so well fed? Patented in 1984, after being filed in ‘81 by a Robert E Hall, the creation is described as such: “A box is formed from a unitary, double-sided corrugated cardboard blank having a plurality of scored lines which enable a set up in box form. A bottom panel of the box has cemented thereto a single-sided, fluted corrugated cardboard medium with the fluted side facing upwardly. A moisture-resistant glue is used between the smooth faces of the fluted corrugated medium and the confronting liner of the blank to provide an impenetrable barrier which prevents grease from penetrating through the box. The boxes are manufactured on a conventional production line which is modified by, in effect, running one stage in a reverse direction in order to invert the single-sided medium and to apply the glue in a different manner to establish the moisture barrier.”
The Big Picture: In truth, the pizza box has many parents, with patent 4,441,626 simply improving grease absorption and venting (dunno who came up with the weird little three legged table you sometimes see.) Neapolitan pizza bakers would put their pies in metallic containers called stufe as far back as the 19th century. Corrugated cardboard was added to the recipe in the ‘60s, with Domino’s creating something pretty similar to the package we know and love — aka the Chicago Folder — shortly thereafter.
A Few Good Links
Dutch Bros picks Olo for mobile ordering. Foxtrot Market’s comeback auction looks to be an inside job. Fat Brands’ Wiederhorn indicted. Grocer Harris Teeter unveils fast food competitive $5 meals. McDonald’s ponders new value meal. Papa John’s stumbles. Coffee (industry) is hot, hot, hot. Shift4 buys Revel Systems. Waabi opening AV truck terminal in DFW. USPS ups Parcel Select rates. China Syndrome: Retail Federation rebuffs Shein ahead of IPO, Temu looks beyond US growth after TikTok tarnished. Nice videos of NYC’s cargo bikes at work. DOJ sez CO suit against Kroger, Albertsons should proceed. If Shopify sneezes, Affirm gets a cold. Purdue (uni, not chicken) researches EV charging roadways. iRely partners with FleetPanda. Electric 3-wheeler market may be worth $1.5B by 2030. Shipt calls for Community Impact and Innovation Grant apps. Magic Lane raises €3M for location intelligence. Aplozo raises $45M for BNPL in MX. Food distribution startup Pepper raises $30M. Bolt partners with Flare Aware. Mercatus names new VP of Retail Ops.
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