Marley Spoon’s sales were falling, then GLP-1 drugs changed what people wanted to eat. Now its new meal range is growing 110% a month.
Background: Marley Spoon started in Berlin in 2014, sending boxes of recipes and ingredients straight to your door. Australia has since become one of its biggest markets.
What happened: Marley Spoon's local sales fell around 15% last financial year to just under $150 million, so in May, Marley Spoon made a pivot. It launched a range of meals designed for people taking GLP-1 weight loss drugs. And it seems to be working, with those meals having tripled in sales and growing around 110% every month.
What else: The GLP-1 range currently makes up 6.5% of local sales, but Marley Spoon's CEO reckons it could eventually account for 20% of every meal they sell. So the meal-kit company that once relied on discounting to get people through the door may have found a new growth engine in a very different kind of appetite.
What's the key learning?
💡 The biggest disruptor in the snack aisle isn't a new flavour... it's a weekly jab (and soon to be pill). The thing is, up to half of the weight lost from GLP-1 drugs can be muscle. And slower digestion can cause constipation.
💡 Food manufacturers are now shifting their product range toward more protein for muscle and more fibre for digestion:
Everything from pasta to chips and yoghurt is also adding more protein to appeal to the roughly half a million Australians now taking GLP-1 medicines regularly.
💡 GLP-1 users are changing what they want to eat, forcing companies to redesign products around protein, fibre and smaller appetites. And for Marley Spoon, that shift could turn weight loss into a recipe for growth.
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