Recipe box brand Gousto is trialling next day delivery in a bid to “compete head-on with supermarkets and takeaways”.
The brand currently offers delivery within three days of ordering, the fastest standard delivery time of the major meal kit players. The trial this month, it says, will significantly expand Gousto’s total addressable market into “those customer segments who for a multitude of reasons seek greater immediacy”.
The company has also doubled its recipe menu from 250 monthly recipes to 500, with “more customisation options than ever before” for customers to upgrade and swap out ingredients, for example to alternative proteins.
This gives Gousto customers access to more than twice as many recipe options than that of its nearest direct competitor, it says, to help convince users “to make the switch to Gousto from the supermarket aisles”.
Recipes are suggested to users based on their order history and other data insights through the brand’s recommender algorithm, which it calls “the Spotify for food”.
The algorithms that run Gousto’s highly automated Warrington factory – which opened in 2022 – have been upgraded to manage the greater complexity in adding more ingredients and recipe choice. The upgrade ensures speed of pick and box flow through the sites remain high, avoiding any log-jams. The upgrades also keep food waste to an absolute minimum, currently at less than 0.3%.
Alongside the doubling of recipe choices, Gousto is increasing the number of healthy meals offered each week by 150% compared to 2024 levels. These include tailored health-focused ranges that allow customers to meet personal health goals such as ‘Protein Hit’, ‘Veg Boost’ or ‘Calorie Controlled (<500)’.
“Over the last 12 years we have pioneered recipe kits as a whole new category, creating one of Europe’s fastest growing and profitable scale-ups,” said Timo Boldt, Gousto founder and CEO. “Our doubling of choice to 500 recipes per month and the trial of next day delivery is a major leap forward in our proposition and a direct challenge to the supermarkets for the mainstream dinner market.”
Gousto this week published its Ultra Processed Plates report, the result of research it commissioned into the nation’s eating and cooking habits. The research revealed that on average UK adults cook 3.75 times a week; over a third (37%) cite lack of time as their main barrier to cooking more from home; and that three-quarters of Brits claim they want to eat more healthily but 30% say being time poor is the biggest barrier to doing so.
The report also finds that while 84% of Brits are aware of the term ultra-processed foods, almost two-thirds (60%) are unaware of the long-term impacts of them on their health. Some 65% of people claim it’s too difficult to avoid UPFs.
Gousto says it has long limited its use of UPFs, which equate to just 11% of its total ingredient library. Use of UPFs in Gousto recipes is predominantly limited to meat substitutes, sauces and filled pastas, with additives only used where there is a clear customer benefit, with a preference for natural additives.
The company is currently in the process of developing a new UPF policy “that goes even further” it said.
“Cooking from scratch is the gateway to improving the nation’s health, by favouring fresh ingredients and minimising ultra processed foods,” said Boldt.
“With double the choice and more recipes now requiring just 15 minutes or less of prep time we are making it easier than ever before for even the most time-poor households to enjoy the benefits of a home cooked meal.”
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