HelloFresh sales hit record highs in 2022 but shares sink as it guides for slower growth

Revenues at HelloFresh hit a new record of €7.6bn (£6.8bn) in 2022 as it shipped more than one billion meals to customers.

However, shares in the meal kit delivery group plunged as investors digested disappointing guidance for 2023.

HelloFresh forecast revenue growth of just 2%-10% this year, compared with 18% in 2022, citing strong comparative figures driven by the pandemic.

It also guided for adjusted EBITDA of €460m-€540m, which is below market consensus from analysts of €547m (£487.7m).

Active customers fell 1.5% to 7.1 million in the final quarter of 2022, which was also below market expectations, while number of orders dropped 0.7% to 29.3 million in Q4.

Shares tumbled by more than 12% as markets opened this morning and are currently down 10.6% to €20.33. The stock is down 43% over the past year.

HelloFresh highlighted contribution margin expansion to 25.5% in the full year, despite record levels of inflation in ingredients and labour.

The group filed adjusted EBITDA of €477.4m (£435.7m), which was down 9.5% year on year.

HelloFresh said its customers showed “a consistently high engagement with high average order rates and a continued expansion of the average order value”. The latter increased by 10% in constant currency in 2022.

CEO and co-founder Dominik Richter said: “2022 presented us with a whole new set of challenges that our teams worked very hard on to tackle.

“While we continue to face a difficult macro environment, we still posted healthy growth rates and maintained strong levels of profitability. We also successfully managed to relentlessly mitigate inflationary pressures and ensure that our prices remain competitive compared to grocery stores.”