Mindful Chef is making a major move into retail.
The meal kit delivery brand has launched a trio of frozen meals – spicy panang chicken curry with black rice, chicken tikka masala with brown rice and creamy coconut fish pie with sweet potato mash – into Ocado. They are all billed as being free from refined carbs, gluten and dairy.
Mindful Chef CEO Tim Lee called it a “significant” play for the brand, adding it was “one that we hope to expand upon further in the future”.
He said the business had seen a 387% spike in sales of its frozen meals since the outbreak of coronavirus, as well as a “significant increase in basket size, with multiple frozen customers spending over £500 in one order, equating to over 80 frozen meals”.
Mindful Chef mounted a £25m fundraise in April, with Lee saying at the time he expected to secure the cash for a minority stake by the summer.
The brand has also recently expanded its range of frozen foods and smoothie mixes available to order from its website. New meals include the likes of Keralan cod curry with black rice, pesto salmon and Mediterranean-style lentils, and cashew carbonara with tofu and brown rice penne.
It comes as frozen foods have been a major winner since coronavirus hit the UK.
According to recent data compiled by Kantar and the British Frozen Food Federation, value sales of frozen in the 12 weeks to 14 June skyrocketed 19.4% on volumes up 17.5% - that’s a £285m increase.
British Frozen Food Federation CEO Richard Harrow suggested this was “hardly surprising, given the long shelf-life, reduced food waste, value for money and variety of food on offer”.
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