Nestlé has agreed to acquire SimplyCook, a recipe kit company in the UK, bolstering its food and direct-to-consumer offerings in the UK and Ireland.
SimplyCook’s founder Oli Ashness launched the business in 2014 to offer pre-portioned blends of authentic flavours combined with easy to follow recipes, designed to help consumers cook delicious dishes from around the world. Since its launch, the business has helped households across the UK to cook more than 20 million recipes.
SimplyCook will continue to be led by its founding team from its base in London with the support of Nestlé’s expertise and operations.
This move brings together Nestlé’s extensive expertise in nutrition and industry leading research capability with SimplyCook’s entrepreneurial vision to make cooking more accessible. With the increasing interest of consumers in food as well as subscription services, Nestlé’s investment in this digital-first business offers significant growth opportunities.
Stefano Agostini, CEO for Nestlé UK & Ireland said “I am delighted to welcome the SimplyCook team to Nestlé. We share an ambition to make cooking more accessible by offering delicious, nutritious and convenient solutions. This is an ideal partnership for both parties as Nestlé continues to transform its portfolio and SimplyCook accelerates its growth.”
“There is a growing demand for great tasting, nutritionally balanced food and this move underlines our focus on investing in businesses with attractive growth prospects and acting on current trends.”
Oli Ashness, Chief Executive Officer, SimplyCook said: “At SimplyCook we’ve always been focused on our long-standing mission to bring joy to tens of millions of meal times around the world through fantastic flavour and our simple recipes.
“The more we got talking to Nestlé the more we realised that our ambitions and vision for the business aligned with what Nestlé sees as the right path for the SimplyCook business. Nestlé’s experience, operational expertise, and international know-how gives us the opportunity to expand further in the UK and beyond, making cooking more accessible for millions more consumers in far less time than we previously imagined.
“We already have a great team with a very diverse set of skills which will continue to run the business with the same entrepreneurial spirit and data-driven approach, putting the consumer at the centre of everything we do, and I look forward to seeing what the team can deliver going forward with some exciting doors now opened to us”.
With more than 130 chef designed recipes, carefully crafted flavour blends with up to 18 different ingredients and nationwide reach through a recyclable, letterbox-sized box that is delivered at consumers’ doorstep via the post service, SimplyCook is an accessible proposition with mass market potential and one of the highest rated recipe kits in the UK according to independent review site Trustpilot.
The acquisition further expands Nestlé’s portfolio of retail and direct-to-consumer businesses at a time when dining at home has become more important than ever.