Carrefour has acquired a majority stake in French meal kit start-up Quitoque as it continues to focus on e-commerce.
Through a subscription system, Quitoque offers varied and healthy recipes to be prepared at home with local, organic and seasonal products.
Founded in 2014, it focuses on foods of French origin. Last year the start-up, which has 60 employees, delivered nearly 3 million meal kits in France.
Following the transaction, effective today, Quitoque will remain managed by its co-founders who will continue to develop the company alongside Carrefour.
This investment allows Carrefour to expand its food e-commerce offering. Earlier this year the French supermarket chain said it aims to be a leader in food e-commerce with a €2.8 billion investment in digital by 2022 as it targets turnover in food e-commerce of €5 billion per year.
It also plans to cut 2,400 jobs at the group’s headquarters in Île-de-France to “improve operational efficiency of the teams and increase responsiveness”.
Speaking of the Quitoque deal, Marie Cheval, Carrefour executive director for customers, services and digital transformation, said: “Carrefour constantly strives to be closer to its customers and to enrich the shopping experience by offering innovative services that simplify everyday shopping.
“At the crossroads of digital and food, Quitoque will enable us to strengthen our position in the food tech industry in order to provide an omnichannel response to new consumer habits through the combination of proximity, convenience and quality.”
Quitoque co-founder Etienne Boix said: “This transaction confirms the relevance of our model and will enable us to capitalise on Carrefour’s strengths to accelerate our omnichannel development.”
Last week Walmart revealed plans to profit from the popularity of meal kits with the launch of a range of meals in 2,000 of its stores.
So far this year US start-up Sun Basket has raised $57.8 million to expand its meal kit offering and earlier this week UK meal kit provider Gousto secured £28.5 million in funding.
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