CobornsDelivers Expands Meal Kit Program
CobornsDelivers, an online grocery delivery service serving Twin Cities residents, has expanded its fresh meal kit offerings for the summer, following last year’s successful rollout.
The service will bring back eight favorite To the Table fresh meal kits and roll out 14 more options for busy families to add to their online grocery orders. Each is packed in a box the same day they’re delivered, with everything required to prepare dinner, including new full-color recipe cards.
The new chef- and dietitian-designed kits were created in response to customer requests and incorporate favorite ingredients of CobornsDelivers shoppers. Unlike many other shipped meal kit services, CobornsDelivers kits require no subscription,
These latest offerings bring easy meals with increased variability and sophistication to CobornsDelivers customers seeking choices that reflect their interest in ethnic flavors and healthful family dinners. Summer meals include grill-friendly favorites, gluten-free options, vegetarian offerings, and breakfast and dessert selections. The full list of options can be viewed here.
“We use local produce when possible, and meats and dairy from regional producers. Everything we send out is rigorously selected for quality, and because we pack our meal kits at our headquarters in New Hope, Minn., the same day they’re delivered, national companies can’t compete with us on freshness,” said Katie Boegel, ecommerce marketing manager at CobornsDelivers. “We don’t force our customers into a subscription or limit them to delivery on a specific day of the week. It’s all about meeting families’ needs, and our new meals reflect their requests and preferences.”
The meal kits serve two or more people, with most of the new offerings portioned for a family of four. Breakfast and dessert kits offer six or more servings. CobornsDelivers doesn't apply a single standard price to its meal kits – rather, it prices them to reflect the expense of ingredients, with an average price per serving range of $6 to $9. The cost range is less than the $10-per-person average estimated by The NPD Group, in Port Washington, N.Y., though still more than the $4 per person from meals made with components purchased in-store.
Meal kits are a big business today, exploding into a $1.5 billion market over the past five years, according to Rockville, Md.-based Packaged Facts. That number is projected to double in the same timespan to come. While grocers have reason to fear services offering these kits, many are fighting back with solutions of their own. In the past two weeks alone, grocers introducing meal kits include Kroger, with its Prep + Pared kits; Publix, with its Aprons Meal Kits; and Peapod, another grocery delivery service, which teamed with Conagra Brands on a new line of Frontera meal kits.
CobornsDelivers was created in 2008 when St. Cloud, Minn.-based grocer Coborn’s Inc. acquired local grocery delivery pioneer SimonDelivers. Coborn’s Inc. is a 95-year-old employee-owned grocery retailer with approximately 8,000 employees and 55 stores across Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin under the Coborn’s, Cash Wise Foods, Marketplace Foods and Save-A-Lot banners.