Dive Brief:
- HelloFresh is laying off 273 workers at its distribution center in Grand Prairie, Texas, effective May 13, according to a WARN notice.
- The meal kit company is closing that distribution center and consolidating its Texas operations to its Irving site, the company confirmed to Grocery Dive. The Dallas Morning News first reported the news.
- The consolidation in Texas follows recent staffing changes the meal kit company made in Arizona as the company looks to make labor improvements in North America and turn around its financial results.
Dive Insight:
While meal kits and grocery e-commerce surged ahead during the early years of the COVID-19 pandemic, HelloFresh is now working to regain its footing as consumers’ food consumption has shifted.
“As the meal kit market normalizes, we are now focused on diversifying our product offerings and driving profitable growth by optimizing our operational footprint,” a HelloFresh spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “As a result, we have made the difficult decision to consolidate our operations in Texas.”
The Irving facility is the company’s “most technologically advanced fulfillment center, enabling us to offer more choice and customization to our customers,” per the spokesperson. HelloFresh said it is supporting impacted workers with financial support and relocation opportunities for those eligible.
Recently, HelloFresh ended its relationship with staffing agency Manpower, which resulted in job cuts at the Irving facility, The Dallas Morning News reported. HelloFresh offered to reassign impacted workers at the site.
HelloFresh made a similar move in Arizona. A WARN notice filed in January said 564 workers would be impacted. The Phoenix Business Journal reported that the WARN notice was connected to HelloFresh consolidating its use of temporary staffing agencies and that the meal kit company would offer workers employed by Manpower reassignment opportunities with Factor, the ready-to-eat meal company HelloFresh acquired in 2020, and transition their employment to Adecco or Randstad, its other staffing partners.
The closure of the Grand Prairie facility will leave HelloFresh with eight distribution centers in the U.S., according to its website.
HelloFresh has seen several changes to its distribution centers over the last year. In 2024, the company closed its distribution facility in the Atlanta area, cutting 727 jobs. In the fall, the company said it planned to close a distribution center in Nuneaton, a market town in Warwickshire, England, the BBC reported. HelloFresh opened a distribution center in Sydney, Australia, last year, the company shared in a LinkedIn post.
CFO Christian Gartner told investors last week that “direct labor productivity improvements in North America have helped to stabilize contribution margin.” Site closures are part of the company’s cost-cutting program underway, Gartner said, without providing specifics on which locations have been or will be impacted.
Since the start of 2025, HelloFresh’s stock is down 37% but up 19% compared to the same time last year.
In 2024, HelloFresh saw its revenue grow just under 1% year over year, with an expansion of average order value offsetting a decline in orders, according to its earnings release last week. The company said in the announcement that it is focused on pursuing higher profitability and cash flow generation over volume growth.
