Meal delivery startups are dying in Singapore, but Redmart might just win the market

Meal delivery services are taking off all over the world – US-based Munchery is the latest startup to land a massive amount of funding. In Singapore, however, many ready-to-eat and ready-to-cook meal startups are finding themselves in dire straits.

Take Chef Box, for example. In August last year, I wrote a review based on my rather positive experience with it. Not long after, the team disappeared with no more than a cryptic message on its website saying that they are “currently on hiatus.”

Ferry Kluger, who heads online grocery startup Redmart’s very own meal kit service, Homemade, tells Tech in Asia that many of the startups he reached out to while doing research are “either no longer trading or struggle with customer acquisition or capacity constraints.” One of these startups is Cheftains, whose website indicates that it has also fallen on hard times – its menu page is empty, apart from the notice that it is currently updating its menu.

This news isn’t so surprising. After all, getting meal delivery right is a logistical nightmare. For one, all packed ingredients have to arrive at the customer’s doorstep fresh and ready for cooking. Not only does the startup have to source the best ingredients, it also has to ensure that the they are kept in the right environment whilst being delivered, whether it means keeping them refrigerated or dry.

At the same time, these ingredients need to be measured and packaged into the exact right proportions required for the meal to be made – no more, no less – to ensure minimum wastage. In short, startups need dedicated manpower to get these tasks done, as well as deep pockets to purchase the necessary packaging, ingredients, and partnerships with delivery services, which makes it tremendously difficult to scale.

Ecommerce roots

If there is any company that can win this market, however, it is Redmart. Already, it has all the necessary infrastructure in place, sufficient funds, and an existing customer base to tap into. Kluger places emphasis on Redmart’s delivery network “that enables us to reach any customer around the entire island” as another point that puts it in a favorable position.

“[It] also doesn’t add specific costs as meal kits are shipped as part of the normal grocery delivery process, via our existing delivery network, [something that] standalone meal kit companies are struggling with,” he says.

Redmart’s Homemade launched in stealth mode in January this year, shipping around 700 meal kits during its first three-month period. It went public in April, and saw over 1,000 meals being delivered to 800 Singaporean families in just a two-week span.

By comparison, The Hungry Chef – which came on the scene late last year – shipped around 300 meals last month, with founder Ruchi Ballal citing a 50 percent month-on-month growth. Not too shabby, but still some way behind the newcomer.

Most of the options available on Homemade, such as the ribeye steak with mushroom ragout and mashed potatoes and cantonese style honey-soy chicken with fragrant rice, are admittedly tantalizing. Prices range from S$15 to S$30 (US$11 to US$22), and deliveries above S$30 (US$22) are free.