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German meal-kit giant Marley Spoon (ASX: MMM) is set to spend $21 million in order to acquire an Australian ready-meal maker called Chefgood, giving it exposure to a new customer segment.
The deal will see Marley Spoon take full ownership of Melbourne-based Chefgood - a ready-to-heat meal provider which offers more than 30 meals rotating every week across different subscription plans.
Berlin-based Marley Spoon says adding Chefgood to its existing portfolio of brands which currently includes Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon, Marley Spoon and Dinnerly, would enable it to address more customer segments and meal occasions, thereby expanding its addressable market.
Marley Spoon Australian managing director Rolf Weber says he is looking forward to working with the Chefgood founder and CEO Michelle Sievwright to grow the brand and serve the ASX-listed company’s customers even more of what they want.
“We are very excited to be partnering with Michelle and the Chefgood team since we share the same vision of making our customers' lives easier with easy, tasty, and high-quality meal solutions,” says Weber.
“We are all about healthy, tasty, honest food. Everyone at Chefgood is looking forward to working with Marley Spoon as we share their philosophy of delighting our customers,” adds Sievwright.
The transaction is expected to be funded by an $8 million equity placement with a long-term oriented European institutional investor and an $11 million extension to Marley Spoon’s existing debt facility with Runway Growth Capital.
The acquisition is expected to close in January 2022 at which time the first payment tranche of $10 million, expected to be paid in cash, will become due.
Marley Spoon’s move mirrors that of major competitor HelloFresh, which acquired ready meal specialist Youfoodz for $125 million earlier this year.
At the time, Hellofresh said it saw the acquisition of Youfoodz as another step in its strategy to become the leading global direct-to-consumer (D2C) food solutions group.
"We are very excited to welcome Youfoodz and its CEO Lance Giles to our group," HelloFresh Australia and New Zealand CEO Tom Rutledge said at the time.
"We are impressed by Youfoodz' strong product and manufacturing capabilities and are looking forward to jointly delight Australians with delicious, healthy and convenient meals.
"Youfoodz 'complementary product and capability backed by a well known brand and highly capable team will allow us to serve more meal occasions to more people."
Shares in MMM are up 19.42 per cent to $0.83 per share at 12.14pm AEDT.
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