True Food Innovations buys Chef'd
True Food Innovations has purchased the assets of meal kit company Chef’d, which about one week earlier had ceased operations after it ran out of money.
The company had made inroads at retail, placing its kits with Gelson’s, Costco, Tops Markets, Food Lion and Hy-Vee. A pilot program with Walgreens was also planned.
Chef’d assets now owned by True Food Innovations include a plant, property, equipment, brand and more, according to a news release.
True Food Innovations, a subsidiary of True Family Enterprises, plans to consolidate the assets into its existing business.
“We are looking forward to working with brands and former customers as we restructure and operate the Chef’d assets,” Robert Jones, president of True Food Innovations and a former senior vice president of business development for Chef’d, said in the release. “We have already developed and are in market with long shelf-life retail meal kits under the brand of True Chef, so we seized the opportunity to acquire the assets and brand of Chef’d as the transaction will be accretive to our business from day one.
“We believe the retail channel will continue to grow and we will concentrate our efforts on that portion of the Chef’d business,” Jones said.
True Food Innovations announced in January that Costco locations in Texas and Bashas’ locations in Arizona would be carrying its True Chef meal kits.
The company works with sister organization True Fresh HPP to develop and manufacture food products using high pressure processing technology, a cold pasteurization technique that allows for shelf life far longer than the normal range for packaged fresh items.
“Our unique position as a leader in the HPP processor field enables us to service a large capacity of retail customers,” Alan True, founder and CEO of True HPP and parent company True Family Enterprises, said in the release. “Additionally, our team of food scientists and culinary experts are constantly innovating ways to utilize our HPP technology, which has allowed us to create longer-lasting meal kits and other food products that carry a fresh, clean label and longer shelf life, which will perform well within the retail marketplace.”
