Recipe box brand Mindful Chef has launched in Northern Ireland, the business’ first geographical expansion since its inception in 2015.
The launch – which makes the meal kits available to the whole of the country – followed a £2.8m increase (14%) in year-on-year sales, the company said.
Meals will be delivered to customers on Wednesdays, and fulfilled from Mindful Chef’s fulfilment centre in Redditch. The kits will be delivered by DPD and arrive in Northern Ireland by boat.
The brand offers customers 40 recipes a week to choose from, designed by an in-house team of chefs. To date, Mindful Chef has delivered more than 30 million meals to around 400,000 customers across the UK.
“We’re thrilled to be launching in Northern Ireland, which marks our next exciting chapter,” said Giles Humphries, co-founder of Mindful Chef.
“Our mission of ‘making healthy eating easy’ hasn’t swayed since day one. Since then we’ve seen consumers’ motivations around health have gotten even stronger, with it now being the number one reason people sign up to Mindful Chef, increasing by 55% year on year. That, combined with strong sales growth this year, makes it the perfect time to bring our unique proposition to the Irish market.”
Mindful Chef – which was acquired by Nestlé in 2020 – experienced a huge jump in sales during Covid, as the pandemic fuelled demand for its healthy recipe kits and ready meals. However, accounts filed in September for the year ending December 2022 showed operating losses had increased by £5.1m to £7.7m as gross profit margins slipped 5.6 percentage points to 25.1%.
CEO Tim Lee told The Grocer earlier this year that trading had rebounded in 2023, leaving the business on course for its most profitable year since launching in 2015. The company was also experiencing its strongest period of growth in terms of new customer acquisition for the past 12 months, he added.
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