Blue Apron, the meal-kit company that helped pave the way for delivered, easy-to-make meals at home, is getting new owners.
Wonder Group, a food-delivery company, is buying Blue Apron for about $103 million, a significant premium over the company’s stock price on Thursday afternoon, but still far less than the $1.9 billion it was valued at when Blue Apron went public six years ago.
The stock began trading in June 2017 at a lofty $1,681, but has steadily been falling since that date. On Thursday, shares were down to $5.49. And even with a big spike today, shares have still lost more than 99% of their value life to date.
The new owners plan to continue using the Blue Apron name.
“Wonder is creating the mealtime super app, serving a broad range of occasions that feature cuisines from some of the world’s best chefs and restaurants while leveraging our culinary engineering and vertically-integrated model,” said Marc Lore, Wonder Group founder and CEO in a statement. “At-home meals play a key role in this vision and have been on our strategic roadmap since the beginning.”
Blue Apron had a strong start, but struggled to retain customers as competition grew in the meal-kit space and supply chain issues hampered it in recent years. The company, which at one time partnered with Weight Watchers, reportedly considered a sale after the pandemic, but opted against it.
Wonder, founded five years ago by the creator of Jet.com, has had struggles of its own. The company shifted away from its initial focus and now plans to use a restaurant-delivery model involving a network of kitchens, making meals based on the menus of popular chefs, including Bobby Flay, Jose Andres, Nancy Silverton, and Michael Symon.
“The Blue Apron brand and products that our customers know and love will stay the same, with more opportunity for product expansion in the future,” said Blue Apron president and CEO Linda Findley. “The transaction delivers immediate and certain value for Blue Apron stockholders at a significant premium over recent trading prices.”
