Less than two months after their IPO, Blue Apron Holding Inc.’s ($APRN) shares have been cut in half to just above $5, following a tepid earnings report and horrendous guidance. The stock fell to $5.03 in early trade, right around -20%, before regaining some ground.
For those who are unfamiliar, Blue Apron sells ingredients to make meals which you simply throw together and cook using recipe cards. Basically it takes the measuring, chopping, and planning out of cooking.
Unfortunately, they didn’t raise as much during their IPO as hoped for – cutting deeply into their marketing budget. As a result, the company lost customers during the quarter.
It gets worse
While sales beat at $238.1 million vs. analyst estimates of $235.8 million, that’s where the good news ends.
Amid a decrease in marketing expenditures of 43 percent over the first quarter, Blue Apron lost around 9 percent of their customers. On top of that, executives warned in today’s conference call that the second half will be even worse, as the company will be spending heavily on automating its fulfillment centers.
“These complexities have arisen within the last month,” said CFO Brad Dickerson, adding that they’re having trouble attracting new customers. “Because of these factors, we’ll be reducing our marketing spend in the back half of the year, an obvious additional impact to the business’s top-line growth.”
Sales in the second half are expected to come in at $380 – $400 million, falling far short of the $1 billion milestone many had expected.
That reminds me, I have to throw together an Amazon Fresh order for more organic groceries I don’t have to leave the house for, and an Amazon restaurants order for dinner that I don’t have to prepare and throw in a fucking oven myself.
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Hahahahahaha
automated fulfillment centers doesn’t sound very organic/fresh delivery like to me.
These boxes have trash overpriced ingredients, go on their site find a recipe for a meal you’d like to try, and make it yourself for less with better ingredients from your local farmers market.
The Blue Apron concept should have never made it off the ground to begin with. On the other hand, one can understand how measuring, chopping, and planning a meal would be confusing for the retarded millennials who are confused even about their gender.
SNAP to the woodshed….time to write your obligatory “SNAP is shit” post
Tried Blue Apron. The novelty wears off very quickly and its quite expensive. This was a great short when it came public if you were able to borrow some shares. Its going to zero unless someone foolishly acquires them.