[Square] The Present and Future of the Meal Kit Market

When meal kits were first introduced in 2016, it used to take 30 minutes just to explain to industry insiders what advantages meal kits offered. At that time, people did not understand why ingredients that could be purchased separately were bundled and sold together. In just five years, meal kits have grown into a market worth 200 billion KRW. By 2024, it is expected to grow into a 700 billion KRW market, becoming the most prominent representative product in the food industry.

Recently, many believe that COVID-19 played a major role in the growth of the meal kit market. However, the growth of the fresh HMR (Home Meal Replacement) market, led by meal kits, was anticipated since the founding of Fresh Easy. At that time, the fresh HMR market was already rapidly expanding in global markets including the United States and Japan. In Korea, the e-commerce market was evolving alongside dawn delivery services, establishing the fastest distribution infrastructure in the world optimized for delivering fresh HMR products to consumers.

It is true that social distancing measures due to COVID-19 increased the time consumers spent at home, leading to more meal kit usage experiences. For consumers who found it difficult to shop and cook three meals a day and were tired of delivery food, meal kits emerged as the most reasonable way to easily solve a meal. The increase in meal kit experience applies not only to general consumers but also to small business owners. Fresh Easy, selected as a ‘Caring Company’ by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, is helping small business owners affected by COVID-19, including ‘Baeknyeon Gage’ (Century-old Stores), by developing their signature menu items into meal kits and selling them through various distribution channels.

Fresh Easy is contemplating how to lead changes in a market expected to continue doubling in size every year even in the post-COVID era.

Fresh Easy’s new focus for preparing the future is ‘content commerce’ and ‘B2B publisher.’ Consumers’ tastes for flavors are becoming more diverse over time, and the ways they purchase products are also changing. This year, live commerce based on online platforms such as portals and social networking services (SNS) is expected to become the center of consumption. The era is approaching where consumers choose and purchase products from thousands of shopping channels broadcasting simultaneously.

As sales channels diversify, small brands with menus catering to segmented tastes will begin to gain attention over large brands with uniform flavors. Going forward, meal kit companies including Fresh Easy are expected to play the role of publishers in the HMR market. When all businesses with excellent ideas and recipes?such as dining specialists, small business owners, and influencers?create meal kit recipes, meal kit companies with product planning capabilities and production know-how will realize them. A new era has arrived where all kinds of food in the world can be conveniently tasted at home with just a few clicks.

Jung Joong-kyo, CEO of Fresh Easy