Loss of active clients. Decrease in income. Elimination of posts. By its co-founder and CEO’s own admission, Marché Goodfood, known for its ready-to-eat meal boxes, is having a tough time. To “reconnect with growth”, Jonathan Ferrari bets on its new service that allows delivery in 30 minutes.
In addition to meal boxes, the company sells groceries and ready-to-eat meals online. This change that puts Goodfood in direct competition with supermarkets like IGA or Metro, which have recently invested to maximize their online ordering and delivery services, is far from guaranteeing the company’s success, believes Jordan LeBel, associate professor of marketing at food at Concordia University. He says that he is not “convinced” by the effectiveness of this new strategy.
For Jonathan Ferrari, this 30-minute grocery delivery service, ready-to-eat and ready-to-prepare meals, all offered on the Goodfood site, embodies the “future” of the company, he explained during an interview with Press on Tuesday, following a speech given at the invitation of the Canadian Club of Montreal. Everything can be done without signing up for a weekly subscription as was the case before. The service is currently offered in Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa through eight micro-centers located in the three cities. Ultimately, Mr. Ferrari wants to extend it to the entire country.
“Right now there is a macroeconomic storm that affects us: we have gone from a pandemic to a war, to a level of inflation that we have not seen in 40 years, to global supply chains that are confused, lists Jonathan Ferrari. In this context, it generates a lot of pressure on our team”, he underlines.
hard to predict
In the latest quarter ended March 5, GoodFood Market saw a 27% decrease in revenue compared to the same period last year. The company has also lost active customers, falling from 254,000 in the same quarter of 2021 to 249,000. According to figures provided by the company on Tuesday, there are now 246,000. About 70 workers at facilities in Quebec and Ontario. . In recent months there have also been changes in the Board of Directors and in senior management.
If it suspected that the relaxation of health measures would cause a loss of momentum in the demand for ready-made meal boxes, Ferrari found it difficult to predict how consumer habits would change. “It was hard to predict how many and when, but we knew there would be an impact,” he admits. The important thing is to continue innovating and serving customers in a different way than our competitors. That’s why we really focused on Goodfood On Demand, which is seeing pretty rapid growth. »
“It removes the whole notion of subscription management,” he adds. It gives the opportunity to order things at the last minute. »
In more than three months, the number of customers who have used the on-demand service has grown from 13,000 to 27,000. Currently, the company offers a total of 1,200 products. By the end of the year, that number will rise to 2,000.
Will this business model, which is beginning to resemble that of traditional supermarkets, be profitable for society? Jordan LeBel doubts it. “The offer does not seem attractive enough [pour rallier des consommateurs], he believes. I don’t think he’s motivating enough. I find that the value proposition that they are trying to develop opens us up to another form of competition. And they already have a lot of competition. So why do this? »
good food market
Year of foundation: 2014
Total number of employees: 3000
Headquarters: Montreal
Number of active clients: 246,000
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