Crisp Acquires Meal Box Business De Krat

The Dutch app-based supermarket Crisp has acquired the meal box business De Krat.

The acquisition, which Crisp announced in a LinkedIn post on Monday (Jan. 23), will allow the two companies to pool their resources to better serve their customers.

Both businesses operate in the Netherlands with a heavy emphasis on short, local supply chains. For now, they will retain separate brand identities and websites, but “in time, we will really make it one brand,” Eric Klaassen, Crisp’s co-founder, said in an interview with change.inc.

For Crisp, the deal marks the second time the company has strategically purchased another company to benefit from business synergies, having acquired the food supplier Eetfabriek in October.

In the case of Eetfabriek, Crisp gained full ownership over a major supply chain partner, helping it to bring more of its food procurement in-house.

Through the latest merger, the grocery app will be able to add meal boxes to its offering. In turn, De Krat customers will be offered the chance to add additional items from Crisp’s inventory to their scheduled boxes.

As Klaassen commented in a tech.eu article, “as a meal box user, you now have the assortment of an entire supermarket at your disposal. And vice versa, with your grocery shopping you can add the option to always have all ingredients delivered at home for your weeknight meals.”

Beyond being able to diversify its offering, De Krat will also benefit from Crisp’s logistics capacity. Whereas De Krat previously worked with external distribution partners, from now on, Crisp will handle meal box deliveries using its increasingly electrified fleet, the article said.

What’s more, by joining forces with Crisp, the possibility of expanding De Krat’s service to Belgium also opens up.

Although there are no plans to expand beyond the Netherlands immediately, according to tech.eu, a Crisp representative said that “further roll-out in Belgium is definitely in the pipeline.”

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