Albertsons acquires Plated
Albertsons has purchased meal kit company Plated, and the move could vault the retailer ahead in an area in which it had been lagging behind.
“Albertsons is the last to the party, but the thing is, by buying Plated they have essentially just pushed themselves ahead because the Plated offer is definitely something that’s different than what the traditional retailers are doing on their own,” said Diana Sheehan, director of retail insights for Kantar Retail.
She mentioned Kroger, Ahold Delhaize, Wal-Mart and Amazon as other retailers exploring the category, and Publix, Coborn’s and Ball Food Stores are others who have entered the space. The differentiating factor for Albertsons, Sheehan said, is the target audience.
“Plated tackles things from that premium, upscale, restaurant-quality meal idea, and that’s something that when you look at the stores and you look at the offers that your traditional supermarkets ... they’re coming at it at a less sophisticated level,” Sheehan said. “They’re going at it from more of that mid-tier, mid-taste kind of flavor profile versus focusing on the foodie,”
Albertsons has more than 2,300 stores, and the meal kits will be offered in many of those and on the digital platforms of the retailer, according to a news release. Albertsons expects the deal to make Plated the first multi-channel meal kit service with national scale.
Among the attributes that made Plated attractive to Albertsons were its technology and data.
“Plated knows its customers better than anyone, and together we will accelerate our ability to serve them,” Bob Miller, chairman and CEO of Albertsons, said in the release. “We are excited to offer our customers more online options and fresh, quality ingredients along with distinctive recipes at their doorstep or through traditional shopping trips.”
Sheehan envisioned Albertsons taking meal kits to the next level after starting with a trusted brand in Plated.
“I actually could see Albertsons taking the Plated concept and starting to expand it into lines of food — the family friendly meal kit, the vegetarian meal kit, the foodie meal kit, and I could see them moving it into a fully developed category beyond just kind of the basics,” Sheehan said.
