As part of its ecommerce strategy, Carrefour starts investing in foodtech

Carrefour, one of the global leaders in food retail, announced it has acquired a majority stake in the start-up Quitoque, leader of meal kit deliveries, and one of the French pioneers in Foodtech.

Created in 2014, Quitoque is the French leader in meal kits delivered at home. Through a subscription system, it offers each week varied and healthy recipes to be prepared at home with local, organic and seasonal products.

In 2017, the company, which has 60 employees, delivered nearly 3 million meals throughout France. Following the transaction, effective today, Quitoque will remain managed by its co-founders who will continue to develop the company alongside Carrefour.

”This investment allows Carrefour to expand its food e-commerce offering. It is fully in line with the Group’s ambition of creating an omnichannel universe of reference and becoming the world leader in the food transition for all.”, according to the press release.

“Carrefour constantly strives to be closer to its customers and to enrich the shopping experience by offering innovative services that simplify everyday shopping. At the crossroads of digital and food, Quitoque will enable us to strengthen our position in the Foodtech industry in order to provide an omnichannel response to new consumer habits through the combination of proximity, convenience and quality” said Marie Cheval, Executive Director Customers, Services and Digital Transformation at Carrefour.

According to Etienne Boix, co-founder of Quitoque: “This transaction confirms the relevance of our model and will enable us to capitalize on Carrefour’s strengths to accelerate our omnichannel development”.

Under new chief executive Alexandre Bompard, Carrefour announced in January a sweeping transformation plan to boost growth and profitability by 2020. As part of this overhaul, Carrefour plans to increase investment in digital six-fold to €2.8bn over five years with a target to reach €5bn in food e-commerce sales by 2022.