“The meal-kit service? They just called and want our help evaluating their business model and disruption threats.” “Lydia, have you heard of Blue Apron?” Ramos asked.

Her boss, Marco Ramos, the head of McKinsey's global Agriculture practice, was on the other line.

Lydia Thomas, a third-year consultant in McKinsey and Co.'s (McKinsey's) Agriculture practice in Chicago, was working from home on Friday, March 4, 2022, when the phone rang. Could Blue Apron continue to compete in the market it had helped to create?īlue Apron: Has the Supply Chain Disrupter Been Disrupted? The case allows for a rich discussion around the food supply chain, the advantage of scale, and business-model innovation. Even Walmart and Amazon were competitors in the evolving market. Even when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, prompting a huge surge in demand for food delivery, the rise of competitors and new industry disrupters such as HelloFresh, Uber Eats, and Instacart still had Blue Apron concerned about the viability of its business model in the face of numerous threats. Although Blue Apron experienced years of growth, in 2017, customers began to leave the platform and the business began to struggle. Thomas learns that Blue Apron offered its customers a fun way to learn to cook, to try a new cuisine, and to save time at the grocery store and in the kitchen, all with the promise of healthy, seasonal, carefully sourced ingredients that wouldn't end up becoming food waste. who must offer a strategy recommendation for Blue Apron as the company struggles to turn a profit in an increasingly competitive food-delivery industry. The case follows Lydia Thomas, a third-year consultant at McKinsey & Co. Founded in 2012 by three entrepreneurs, Blue Apron sought to give people an easier way to get meals on the table without resorting to takeout or delivery: a box filled with exactly the right amount of ingredients for making creative and interesting recipes.

This public-sourced case set in early 2022 explores the meal-kit-delivery service Blue Apron, a pioneer in the rapidly growing market of alternatives to shopping for food, meal planning, and cooking.

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