Blue Apron to Launch Whole30 Diet Meal Plan in September

The Whole30 diet plan has become one of the most popular dieting trends in America, with both the Whole30 dieting book and the Whole30 Cookbook on The New York Times bestseller list. This is why Blue Apron, which was once dominating the meal kit industry, has decided to launch another Whole30 approved meal plan for the month of September.

The meal kit company announced their new selection of Whole30 approved recipe offerings on Monday. According to Blue Apron, they developed these new meal kit offerings to help consumers who are following the diet plan produce Whole30 approved meals with ease. Starting on September 3, the company will be offering their customers three varieties of Whole30 approved recipes per week. These recipe offerings will continue throughout the rest of the month.

However, this isn’t the first time that Blue Apron launched a Whole30 inspired line of meal kits. The company first tried this dieting trend out in January in an effort to capture consumers looking to eat healthier in the new year. During the eight weeks between January 8 to February 26, the company provided their customers with two Whole30 approved recipes each week under their two-person menu options. Their initial test launch was such a success that the company has decided to reintroduce Whole30 meal kits.

“I have never seen such an overwhelming response to a campaign as when we announced in January that Blue Apron would be offering two Whole30 meals on its weekly menus,” said Melissa Hartwig, Whole30 CEO. “Our community already loved the simplicity and convenience of Blue Apron, but offering Whole30 Approved meals was a game-changer, especially for people trying our program for the first time. I’m sure our social media feeds will be overloaded with excited emojis when we announce they’re coming back in September with all-new recipes and three meals a week.”

This move comes after the meal kit company lost their spot as the top-selling meal kit provider in the US to Hello Fresh earlier this year. This might be due to the fact that the meal kit industry is becoming oversaturated with multiple meal kit providers. In fact, almost all meal kit providers experienced a decline in sales in 2017 by the fourth quarter. Blue Apron, in particular, experienced their lowest share level yet in 2017 after being dubbed as the company with the worst performing IPO.

However, the company was not going to go down without a fight, which is why the meal kit maker launched a variety of new initiatives in 2018. Along with their new Whole30 approved recipes, the company also announced a partnership with Costco to sell their meal kits in stores in May. This was a good move for Blue Apron considering the fact that 85 percent of meal kit subscribers claim to want meal kits in stores. The company also introduced new sustainability initiatives to add to their other eco-friendly practices in an effort to attract environmentally-conscious millennials.

All these new initiatives will likely help the meal kit company stay afloat in the increasingly competitive meal kit industry. However, it looks like the company’s shares are still on a downward slope with a loss of 17 cents per share during the first quarter of 2018. Nevertheless, the loss was lower than the 24 cents per share that Thomson Reuters estimated for the company. The good news is that Blue Apron experienced better-than-expected first quarter earnings and the company is working towards building a stronger following through new initiatives and marketing investments.

“We are excited to partner with Whole30 for a second time,” said Christine Fu, Head of Partnerships, Blue Apron. “All of the recipes were designed with ease in mind, many of which can be prepared in 25 minutes or less. We look forward to offering Whole30 fans a selection of delicious and easy-to-prepare recipes as they follow the program throughout the month of September.”