Meal Prep Business Plan Template

Meal Prep Business Plan

You’ve come to the right place to create your Meal Prep business plan.

We have helped over 1,000 entrepreneurs and business owners create business plans and many have used them to start or grow their Meal Prep businesses.

Below is a template to help you create each section of your Meal Prep business plan.

Executive Summary

Business Overview

Fresh Meals is a new meal prep company that provides meal kits to customers located throughout the United States. We offer numerous recipes for our customers to choose from and switch up the recipe options every week. Once a customer selects the recipes they want for the week, we send all the ingredients required in those recipes so they can cook the meal in the comfort of their home. All ingredients are organic and every recipe is delicious and healthy. We also offer recipes catered to specialized diets, such as vegetarian, vegan, keto, and paleo.

Fresh Meals is founded by Jennifer Lynd, an experienced chef. After years of working in a busy restaurant kitchen, she has decided to use her skills to create healthy meals that consumers can cook in the comfort of her home. Her experience in the restaurant industry and skills as a chef will ensure that we become the #1 meal prep company in the United States in the next several years.

 

Product Offering

Fresh Meals offers hundreds of meal prep kits made from organic and healthy recipes. Every week, customers look at our menu options and pick the meals that are the most appetizing to them. After their order and payment, we ship a box of ingredients to the customers so they can make the meals in their home. Every recipe is made with organic ingredients and takes about 30 minutes or less to make.

 

Customer Focus

Fresh Meals will serve customers living throughout the United States. We offer meals that are healthy and organic but are priced cheaper than buying organic foods from a grocery store. We expect that our meal prep kits will particularly attract Gen Z and Millennial middle class individuals and families.

 

Management Team

Fresh Meals is founded by Jennifer Lynd. Jennifer has worked for one of the most popular restaurants in town for the past 20 years as a chef of organic and healthy meals. She has been eager to leave behind the restaurant scene and use her talents to help consumers cook healthy meals in the comfort of her home. She saw how popular meal prep companies were and decided to create a meal kit delivery service that exclusively offered organic meals. Her experience and skills will be the company’s most valuable assets.

 

Success Factors

The following success factors will set Fresh Meals apart from the competition:

• Fresh Meals will focus on providing recipes made with organic ingredients, which most other meal prep companies do not provide.
• Fresh Meals will offer free meals and deep discounts to customers who consistently purchase meal kits with us.
• Fresh Meals offers cheap and speedy shipping to ensure our meals get to the customer as fast as possible.
• Fresh Meals will offer high quality meal kits for a cheaper cost than the competition.

 

Financial Highlights

Fresh Meals is seeking a total funding of $450,000 of debt capital to launch. The funding will be dedicated to the website design, food preparation equipment and supplies, marketing expenses, working capital, and three months worth of payroll expenses. The breakout of the funding is below:

• Website Development: $50,000
• Equipment and Supplies: $50,000
• Marketing and Brand Development: $100,000
• Three Months of Overhead Expenses (Payroll, Rent, Utilities): $150,000
• Working Capital: $100,000

The following graph outlines the pro forma financial projections for Fresh Meals.

 

Company Overview

Who is Fresh Meals?

Fresh Meals is a meal prep company dedicated to making it easier for consumers to purchase and cook organic and healthy meals. We do this by offering hundreds of recipes to choose from and providing our customers with all the ingredients they need to cook the meals they ordered. Every meal is made with organic ingredients and takes about 30 minutes or less to cook.

 
We offer a large variety of meals to cater to several diets. When signing up, customers can indicate their preference to only get vegetarian, vegan, paleo, keto, or gluten free meals. Once they indicate their preferences, we will show them the list of recipes that meet the criteria for these diets.

Fresh Meals is led by Jennifer Lynd, who has been a chef for 20 years. Jennifer has spent most of her career working for a five star restaurant that serves completely organic meals. She has decided to leave behind the stressful environment of a restaurant kitchen and use her talents to make meals that consumers can cook in the comfort of her home. Her experience and skills will be the company’s most valuable assets.

 

Fresh Meals’ History

Jennifer Lynd incorporated Fresh Meals on July 1st, 2023 as an S-corporation. The business is currently being run out of her kitchen/home but will run out of a commercial space once a lease is signed.

Since incorporation, Fresh Meals has achieved the following milestones:

• Found a commercial space and signed a Letter of Intent to lease it
• Developed the company’s name, logo, and website
• Determined equipment and fixture requirements
• Created initial menu
• Found partners who will supply organic ingredients

 

Fresh Meals’ Services

Fresh Meals offers hundreds of meal prep kits made from organic and healthy recipes. Every week, customers look at our menu options and pick the meals that are the most appetizing to them. After their order and payment, we ship a box of ingredients to the customers so they can make the meal in their home. Every recipe is made with organic ingredients and takes about 30 minutes or less to make.

We offer numerous recipes that our customers will enjoy. A few example recipes from our initial menu include the following:

• Mozzarella Crusted Chicken
• Fajita Lettuce Wraps
• Cheese Tortellini
• Italian Noodle Soup
• Buffalo Chickpea Sandwiches

We also offer several recipe options for those following a vegetarian, vegan, paleo, or keto diet.

 

Industry Analysis

The Meal Kit industry has grown substantially in the past five years. Very few people in modern times have the time, money, or energy to cook elaborate meals. Getting ingredients can get expensive, especially when using ingredients that will only be used for one recipe. As a result, many consumers (particularly Gen Z and Millennials) have looked for convenient ways to get food on the table without all the work involved. One option that consumers have opted for is to get meal kits delivered to their door.

Meal kit delivery services let consumers choose from a selection of recipes on their website. Once the consumer has completed their order, the companies ship all the ingredients needed for those recipes to the consumer. The consumer can cook the meals whenever they want and not have to worry about shopping for all the ingredients or throwing out wasted food. All ingredients are perfectly portioned for each recipe so every bit is used up.

Meal kits have also made it much easier for Millennials and Gen Z to eat healthier, as these kits are often cheaper and easier to make than healthy recipes found online or in a health cookbook. The increasing awareness of the obesity epidemic and the importance of healthy eating have influenced millions of people to look for healthy meal options. Meal prep companies that incorporate healthy or organic ingredients are more competitive in the market.

According to Grand View Research, the Meal Kit Delivery Service industry is set to grow at a CAGR of 15.3% from now until 2030. This shows how significant the demand is for these services. Therefore, now is a great time to start a new meal prep company.

 

Customer Analysis

Demographic Profile of Target Market

Fresh Meals will serve customers living throughout the United States. We offer meals that are healthy and organic but are priced cheaper than buying organic foods from a grocery store. We expect that our meal prep kits will particularly attract Gen Z and Millennial middle class individuals and families.

 

Customer Segmentation

Fresh Meals will primarily target the following customer profiles:

• Middle class Americans
• Gen Z
• Millennials

 

Competitive Analysis

Direct and Indirect Competitors

Fresh Meals will be competing with other popular food delivery apps. A profile of each competitor is below.

 

Green Apron

Green Apron is a meal prep company that ships healthy vegan meal kits to their customers. All Green Apron meals are free from meat and other animal products and are made with high-quality ingredients. This is a great service for consumers who want to try meal prep kits but can’t find many vegan options with other companies. Though Green Apron won’t be a major competitor for us, they will heavily compete for customers looking for vegan meal kits.

 

Tasty Meals

Tasty Meals is currently the most popular meal prep service in the United States. The company offers thousands of recipes, with hundreds to choose from every week. They offer everything from steak and burgers to salads and soups. As such, they target a large demographic, as they have a variety of meals to appeal to everyone. Consumers can even narrow down their options based on their diet and preferences, such as vegan or keto. We expect Tasty Meals will be our biggest competitor, but we have a significant advantage by using organic ingredients in our meals.

 

Yummy Kits

Yummy Kits delivers hundreds of delicious meal kits to customers that all use organic ingredients. They have a wide selection of options to choose from, including sandwiches, pasta, tacos, burgers, and more. Since Yummy Kits exclusively uses organic ingredients in their kits, they will be a major competitor. However, they do not cater to consumers with specialized diets (vegan, keto, etc.) so we will still be a more appealing option to these customer segments.

 

Competitive Advantage

Fresh Meals offers several advantages over its competition. Those advantages are:

• Organic Ingredients: Fresh Meals will focus on providing recipes made with organic ingredients, which most other meal prep companies do not provide.
• Loyalty Rewards: Fresh Meals will offer free meals and deep discounts to customers who consistently purchase meal kits with us.
• Speedy Shipping: Fresh Meals offers cheap and speedy shipping to ensure our meals get to the customer as fast as possible.
• Pricing: We offer high quality meal kits for a cheaper cost than the competition.

 

Marketing Plan

Brand & Value Proposition

Fresh Meals will offer the unique value proposition to its clientele:

• Comprehensive list of recipes that appeal to a large demographic
• Loyalty rewards and specials
• Fast shipping and delivery
• Moderate pricing

 

Promotions Strategy

The promotions strategy for Fresh Meals are as follows:

Social Media

Fresh Meals will utilize the most popular social media platforms for ads since the majority of the clientele will be active on social media. The company will also have business accounts on each major platform and post pictures of popular recipes regularly.

Website/SEO

Fresh Meals will invest heavily in developing a professional website and app that displays current recipes and information about our pricing. The company will also invest heavily in SEO so that the brand’s website will appear at the top of search engine results.

Referrals

Fresh Meals understands that the best promotion comes from satisfied customers. The company will encourage its customers to refer to other individuals by providing discounts on future meals for every new customer who signs up for our service. This strategy will increase in effectiveness over time.

Special Offers

Offers and incentives are an excellent approach to bringing in new customers. The company will introduce special offers on meal plans to attract new consumers.

 

Pricing

Despite using fresh and organic ingredients, Fresh Meal’s pricing will be moderate so consumers feel they are receiving great value when ordering our recipes. We will also offer discounts, promotions, and rewards for loyal consumers.

 

Operations Plan

The following will be the operations plan for Fresh Meals.
Operation Functions:

• Jennifer Lynd will operate as the CEO of Fresh Meals. In addition to running the general operations, she will design the recipes, plan the weekly menu, and help prepare the ingredients.
• Jennifer will hire 2-3 web developers to run the website and app.
• Jennifer will hire several kitchen staff to help prepare and ship the ingredients.
• Jennifer will also hire an administrative team for accounting/bookkeeping, sales and marketing, and customer service support.

 

Milestones:

Fresh Meals will have the following milestones complete in the next six months.

• 8/202X – Finalize website development
• 9/202X – Finalize lease agreement
• 10/202X – Hire and train initial staff
• 11/202X – Kickoff of promotional campaign
• 12/202X – Launch Fresh Meals
• 1/202X – Reach break-even

 

Management Team

Fresh Meals is founded by Jennifer Lynd. Jennifer has worked for one of the most popular restaurants in town for the past 20 years as a chef of organic and healthy meals. She has been eager to leave behind the restaurant scene and use her talents to help consumers cook healthy meals in the comfort of her home. She saw how popular meal prep companies were and decided to create a meal kit delivery service that exclusively offered organic meals. Her experience and skills will be the company’s most valuable assets.

Though Jennifer has never run a business of her own, she has worked in the industry long enough to gain an in-depth knowledge of the operations (e.g., running day-to-day operations) and the business (e.g., staffing, marketing, etc.) sides of running a meal prep business. She will also hire several professionals to help her run other aspects of the business she is unfamiliar with.

 

Financial Plan

Key Revenue & Costs

Fresh Meals’ revenues will come primarily from the sale of meal prep kits. The cost per kit will depend on how many meals customers order per box as well as how many servings they order. Customers who order in bulk will have a cheaper cost per serving than someone only ordering one or two servings.

The cost drivers for the company will include food prep costs, salaries, the lease, and marketing expenses.

 

Funding Requirements and Use of Funds

Fresh Meals is seeking a total funding of $450,000 of debt capital to launch. The funding will be dedicated to the website design, food preparation equipment and supplies, marketing expenses, working capital, and three months worth of payroll expenses. The breakout of the funding is below:

• Website Development: $50,000
• Equipment and Supplies: $50,000
• Marketing and Brand Development: $100,000
• Three Months of Overhead Expenses (Payroll, Rent, Utilities): $150,000
• Working Capital: $100,000

 

Key Assumptions

The following table outlines the key assumptions required in order to achieve the revenue and cost numbers in the financials and pay off the business loan.

• Number Of Orders Per Month: 100
• Average Order Value Per Customer: $60.00

 

Financial Projections

Income Statement

Balance Sheet

Cash Flow Statement

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