SWITZERLAND - Yes, you read that correctly. Nestlé USA has officially thrown its hat into the buy-side ring. The brand behemoth recently completed its acquisition of Freshly, a meal delivery service that puts an emphasis on fresh food. The deal, which closed on October 30, valued Freshly at a whopping $950 million, with the potential for earnouts of up to $550 million contingent to the success of the company’s growth.

"We are excited to welcome Freshly to the Nestlé family," said Nestlé USA Chairman and CEO, Steve Presley. "Consumers are embracing e-commerce and eating at home like never before. It's an evolution brought on by the pandemic but taking hold for the long term. Freshly is an innovative, fast-growing food-tech startup, and adding them to the portfolio accelerates our ability to capitalize on the new realities in the U.S. food market and further positions Nestlé to win in the future."

Freshly was founded in 2015 and offers a menu of fresh, chef-cooked meals to consumers across the United States.

According to a press release, Freshly and Nestlé’s agreement will combine both companies' understanding of how people eat at home with research, development, and analytics in order to continue fueling both Nestlé's and Freshly's future growth.

"We are extremely excited to expand our relationship with Nestlé," said Freshly CEO Michael Wystrach. "Our mission is to make eating healthy easy by bringing nutritious, high-quality meals directly to customers' homes. Convenience and nutrition are driving forces in the future of food, and our becoming a part of the world's largest food company confirms that. With Nestlé, we will have access to resources, research and development, and years of experience that we can tap into to catapult our growth plans and move closer to our goal of being in every household in America."

Nestlé originally purchased a 16 percent stake in Freshly back in 2017, as reported by our sister site, Deli Market News, to test the up-and-coming market. After helping to pioneer the direct-to-consumer prepared meal delivery sector, Freshly will now help build upon Nestlé's portfolio as a buy-side player.

"At Nestlé, we know the at-home food market and we know how to win there. With the acquisition of Freshly, we are strengthening our position in the U.S. and expanding our ability to deliver a wide variety of delicious food to our consumers when and where they want," added Laurent Freixe, Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer Zone Americas, Nestlé Global. "Whether purchasing our products from the comfort of their homes, in retail stores, or through social commerce, we will continue to provide them with unbeatable convenience, choice, and ease of purchase."

Does this mean Nestlé will soon be a full-fledged grocery contender? Only time, and ANUK, will tell, so stick with us.

Nestlé USA Freshly