Blue Apron Holdings, Inc. is an American

ingredient In a general sense, an ingredient is a substance which forms part of a mixture. In cooking, recipes specify which ingredients are used to prepare a dish, and the term may also refer to a specific food item in relation to its use in different re ...

-and-

recipe A recipe is a set of instructions that describes how to prepare or make something, especially a dish (food), dish of prepared food. A sub-recipe or subrecipe is a recipe for an ingredient that will be called for in the instructions for the main r ...

meal kit A meal kit is a subscription service–foodservice business model where a company sends customers pre-portioned and sometimes partially prepared food ingredients and recipes to prepare home-cooked meals. Services that send pre-cooked meals are ...

company headquartered in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, operating its services exclusively in the United States. It offers weekly boxes containing ingredients, which also includes suggested recipes that must be cooked by hand by the customer using the pre-ordered ingredients. As of September 2016, the company had shipped 8 million meal servings. In June 2017, the company went public through an

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...

. Since November 2023, Blue Apron operates as a subsidiary of food delivery startup

Wonder Group Marc Eric Lore ( ; born May 16, 1971) is an American entrepreneur, businessman, and investor. Lore is founder, chairman, and CEO of the Wonder Group. From 2016 to 2021, he was the president and CEO of Walmart U.S. eCommerce. Lore was appointed in ...

History

Matt Salzberg, Ilia Papas and Matt Wadiak first began sending customers boxes containing the ingredients to cook recipes in August 2012, packing and shipping the first 30 orders themselves from a commercial kitchen in

Long Island City Long Island City (LIC) is a neighborhood within the New York City borough of Queens. It is bordered by Astoria to the north; the East River to the west; Sunnyside to the east; and Newtown Creek, which separates Queens from Greenpoint, Brook ...

. In May 2014, the company announced that it would be launching a fulfillment center in

Richmond, California Richmond is a city in western Contra Costa County, California, United States. The city was municipal corporation, incorporated on August 3, 1905, and has a Richmond, California, City Council, city council.

. In November 2014, Blue Apron launched Blue Apron Market, a store featuring kitchen tools and cookware. In December 2014, the company opened another fulfillment center in

Jersey City, New Jersey Jersey City is the List of municipalities in New Jersey, second-most populous

. After the opening of its third fulfillment center in

Arlington, Texas Arlington is a city in Tarrant County, Texas, Tarrant County, Texas, United States. It is part of the Mid-Cities region of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metropolitan statistical area, and is a principal c ...

in June 2015, the company began shipping to the contiguous United States. In September 2015, Blue Apron launched Blue Apron Wine, a direct-to-consumer wine delivery service that sends customers six 500 ml bottles per month. The wines, made specifically for Blue Apron, are purchased directly from vineyards and sent directly to customers. In October 2016,

BuzzFeed BuzzFeed, Inc. is an American Internet mass media, media, news and entertainment company with a focus on digital media. Based in New York City, BuzzFeed was founded in 2006 by Jonah Peretti and John Seward Johnson III, John S. Johnson III to ...

reported a history of safety and health violations at the company's

distribution center. The company attributed the problems to operational issues while scaling up during its early days. In February 2017, the company announced that it would be opening a fulfillment center in

Linden, New Jersey Linden is a City (New Jersey), city in southeastern Union County, New Jersey, Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is part of the New York metropolitan area, located about southwest of Manhattan and bordering Staten Island, a boro ...

. On June 29, 2017, Blue Apron had its

of 30 million shares of class A common stock (ticker APRN) priced at $10 per share; it is the first U.S. meal-kit company to go public. Since going public, Wall Street has cut Blue Apron's stock price in half. By October 2017, prior to its next earnings report, the company had announced a company-wide realignment, 6% of employees laid off at both the corporate offices and fulfillment centers, estimated to be a couple of hundred jobs. On November 30, 2017, Blue Apron announced that Brad Dickerson would be replacing Salzberg as CEO; Salzberg will remain chairman. As of March 26, 2018, Blue Apron has lost 81.4% of its market value since its initial public offering. In May 2018, Blue Apron began selling 4 servings meal kits at 17

Costco Costco Wholesale Corporation is an American multinational corporation which operates a chain of membership-only big-box warehouse club retail stores. As of 2021, Costco is the third-largest retailer in the world, and as of August 2024, Cos ...

locations in California, marking the company's entrance into physical retail and Tim Bensley, formerly of Acosta Sales & Marketing, entered as CFO. On August 2, 2018, Blue Apron, announced the total number of customers who paid for a meal delivery had a decrease of 24 percent during the second quarter of 2018 compared to the previous quarter, and the company also indicated total orders had slipped by 23 percent. In April 2019, Brad Dickerson was succeeded by

Linda Findley Kozlowski Linda Findley is the CEO of Blue Apron, a meal kit delivery service.

Early life and edu ...

as the new CEO of the company. However, Dickerson remained at the company as an adviser. In November 2020, Alan Blake was succeeded by Charlean Gmunder as the new COO. Blake left the company in June to lead operations at Kettle Cuisine. In September 2023, food delivery startup

agreed to acquire the company for $103 million, which was finalized couple of months later.

Environmental impact

The company and other meal kit companies have been criticized for creating excess

packaging waste Packaging waste, the part of the waste that consists of packaging and packaging material, is a major part of the total global waste, and the major part of the packaging waste consists of single-use plastic food packaging, a hallmark of throwawa ...

from the individually packaged ingredients. As of 2017, Blue Apron partners with farms that limit agricultural chemicals and promote

soil health Soil health is a state of a soil meeting its range of ecosystem functions as appropriate to its environment. In more colloquial terms, the health of soil arises from favorable interactions of all soil components (living and non-living) that belong ...

through crop rotation to grow specialty crops for the company.

References

External links

* * {{Authority control 2017 initial public offerings Companies formerly listed on the New York Stock Exchange Online food retailers of the United States American companies established in 2012 Retail companies established in 2012 Transport companies established in 2012 Internet properties established in 2012 Food and drink companies based in New York City Subscription services 2012 establishments in New York (state) 2023 mergers and acquisitions