Blue Apron Holdings, Inc. operates a direct-to-consumer platform that delivers original recipes with fresh and seasonal ingredients. It also operates Blue Apron Market, an e-commerce market that provides cooking tools, utensils, pantry items, and other products. In addition, the company offers Blue Apron Wine, a direct-to-consumer wine delivery service that sells wines, which can be paired with its meals. It serves young couples, families, singles, and empty nesters. The company offers its services through order selections on Website or mobile application primarily in the United States. Blue Apron Holdings, Inc. was founded in 2012 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

History

Matt Salzberg, Ilia Papas and Matt Wadiak first began sending customers boxes containing the ingredients to cook recipes in August 2012, packing and shipping the first 30 orders themselves from a commercial kitchen in Long Island City. In May 2014, the company announced that it would be launching a fulfillment center in Richmond, California. In November 2014, Blue Apron launched Blue Apron Market, a store featuring kitchen tools and cookware. In December 2014, the company opened another fulfillment center in Jersey City, New Jersey.After the opening of its third fulfillment center in Arlington, Texas in June 2015, the company began shipping to the contiguous United States.In September 2015, Blue Apron launched Blue Apron Wine, a direct-to-consumer wine delivery service that sends customers six 500 ml bottles per month. The wines, made specifically for Blue Apron, are purchased directly from vineyards and sent directly to customers.In October 2016, BuzzFeed reported a history of safety and health violations at the company's Richmond, California distribution center. The company attributed the problems to operational issues while scaling up during its early days.In February 2017, the company announced that it would be opening a fulfillment center in Linden, New Jersey.On June 29, 2017, Blue Apron had its initial public offering of 30 million shares of class A common stock priced at $10 per share; it is the first U.S. meal-kit company to go public.Since going public, Wall Street has cut Blue Apron's stock price in half. By October 2017, prior to its next earnings report, the company had announced a company-wide realignment, 6% of employees laid off at both the corporate offices and fulfillment centers, estimated to be a couple of hundred jobs.On November 30, 2017, Blue Apron announced that Brad Dickerson would be replacing Salzberg as CEO; Salzberg will remain chairman.As of March 26, 2018, Blue Apron has lost 81.4% of its market value since its initial public offering.In May 2018, Blue Apron began selling 4 servings meal kits at 17 Costco locations in California, marking the company's entrance into physical retail and Tim Bensley, formerly of Acosta Sales & Marketing, entered as CFO.On August 2, 2018, Blue Apron, announced the total number of customers who paid for a meal delivery had a decrease of 24 percent during the second quarter of 2018 compared to the previous quarter, and the company also indicated total orders had slipped by 23 percent.In April 2019, Brad Dickerson was succeeded by Linda Findley Kozlowski as the new CEO of the company. However, Dickerson remained at the company as an adviser.In November 2020, Alan Blake was succeeded by Charlean Gmunder as the new COO. Blake left the company in June to lead operations at Kettle Cuisine.

Mission

Our mission is to make incredible home cooking accessible to everyone

Vision

Our food system—the way in which food is grown and distributed—is complicated, and making good choices for your family can be difficult. We are changing that: By partnering with farmers to raise the highest-quality ingredients, by creating a distribution system that delivers ingredients at a better value and by investing in the things that matter most—our environment and our communities. This will be a decades-long effort, but with each Blue Apron home chef, together we can build a better food system.

Key Team

Ms. Terri Leitgeb (Chief People Officer)

Mr. Joshua B. Friedman (Chief Product Officer)

Ms. Amber Minson (Chief Revenue Officer)

Mr. Mitchell Cohen (Interim CFO, Principal Financial Officer & Principal Accounting Officer)

Jason Hatcher (VP of Operations)

Ms. Irina Krechmer (Chief Technology Officer)

Ms. Louise Ward (Sr. Director of Corp. Affairs & Corp. Communications)

Recognition and Awards

Blue Apron has won several awards, including the Best Meal Kit Service at the IACP Awards in 2014 and Top Food Delivery Company at the SXSW Innovation Awards in 2017.