Blue Apron Earnings Buoyed By At-Home Meals Trend

Blue Apron Earnings Buoyed By At-Home Meals

Blue Apron Holdings Inc., the meal kit delivery service, reported second-quarter (Q2) net income of $1.1 million after reporting a $7.7 million loss in the same period last year, the company announced on Wednesday (July 29).

As a surge of Americans ordered food online to avoid the spread of the coronavirus, the New York-based company posted revenue of $131 million in Q2, up from $119 million for Q2 in 2019, a 10 percent rise. The company said it had a profit of 8 cents per share. 

Blue Apron said its number of customers grew by 20,000 in the quarter. Since Jan. 2, when shares closed at $6.36, Blue Apron stock has increased by 111 percent to $13.42 at the close on Tuesday (July 28).

Average revenue per customer increased 25 percent year over year to $331, up from $265, while orders per customer increased 17 percent.

“Our progress with our strategic growth plan, together with the increase in demand we saw from the COVID-19 pandemic, resulted in solid and continued year-over-year growth in key customer metrics…” said Linda Findley Kozlowski, Blue Apron’s CEO, in a statement.

In April, Blue Apron saw net revenue rise 8 percent and customers increase 7 percent sequentially from Q4 2019 amid an acceleration in marketing efforts. The meal-kit company reported that it has experienced a sizable rise in demand with various stay-at-home orders and restaurant restrictions.

As PYMNTS recently reported, while COVID-19 has caused many businesses to struggle for survival, it’s been a boon for Blue Apron. As recently as late last year, the company was struggling to stand out in the crowded meal kit market that it had helped create, and was widely viewed in early 2020 as a strong takeover or merger target. But that all changed in March with the pandemic.