Canada’s Chefs Plate Announces $6 Million in New Funding Led by Acton Capital Partners

Chefs Plate, Canada’s market leader in the fresh ingredient and recipe delivery space, today announced $6 million in new funding, led by Acton Capital Partners  – a global investment firm associated with a long track record of investing in successful e-commerce brands. Existing investors, Emil Capital and BrandProject, also participated in the round. The capital will be used to fund recruitment and market expansion across Canada, including a new fulfillment centre in Western Canada.

“With this new capital, the focus will be on supporting our rapid growth, including hiring top talent across all divisions,” said Jamie Shea, Co-Founder, Chefs Plate. “Our mission is to create meaningful connections through food. These funds allow us to offer more Canadians well-priced meal-kits with farm-to-table ingredients that are often fresher and less costly than the grocery aisle.”

Chefs Plate is experiencing rapid growth. The company will double its current workforce within the next 12 months, translating to over 100 new jobs in Toronto and Vancouver.

The investment will also expand direct relationships with Chefs Plate’s supply chain of Canadian growers, farmers and producers that allows for food to go directly from its network of artisan farmers and purveyors to customers’ kitchens within three days – or three times faster than grocery stores.”

“Chefs Plate is changing the way Canadians eat,” said Vancouver-based Acton venture partner, Hannes Blum. “In just under two years Chefs Plate has grown to be the leader in the meal-kit delivery category in Canada. The company’s unique model makes it very well-positioned to grow quickly while preserving its value propositions of freshness, quality and convenience at a highly competitive price.”

The news marks the latest in a series of milestones for Chefs Plate. In June 2016, the company announced delivery of 100,000 meal-kits monthly, a new family plan, and extension of delivery outside of Ontario to B.C., Alberta and Manitoba.

Chefs Plate prioritizes the purchase of Canadian grown and farmed produce, dry goods, meats, seafoods and specialty foods. Each month, the Toronto-based start-up ships approximately 200,000 pounds of food comprised of fresh, Canadian-sourced produce, meats and seafoods.

 

Canada’s Most Trusted Brands

The Gustavson Brand Trust Index was established to raise awareness of the role trust plays in the minds of consumers when making purchasing decisions and measures the relationships between social equity, trust, and advocacy for brands in Canada.

The GBTI highlights Gustavson’s goal of educating and championing responsible leadership, part of the vital impact that drives UVic’s sense of purpose as a leading teaching and research hub.

The brand trust survey instrument measures different dimensions of trust that influence whether consumers recommend a brand to their networks:

• Brand trust– consumer perceptions of whether the brand is trustworthy and acts with integrity
  • Values-based trust – consumer perceptions on the brand’s social responsibility
  • Functional trust – consumer perceptions on how well the brand’s product performs or functions
  • Relationship trust – consumer perception on how the brand interacts with its customers
  • Net Recommendations – whether consumers recommend the brand to others

 

Retailers did well in the top 10 this year. MEC (Mountain Equipment Co-Op) took the top spot. MEC takes the top spot from Tim Hortons, which held the .

Costco, Home Hardware and Shoppers Drug Mart are some other retailers to appear in the top 10 this year.

The scores come from consumer attitudes toward whether a brand is trustworthy and acts with integrity, perceptions about their social responsibility and perceptions about how well a brand’s product performs or functions. They’re also based on consumer perception around how the brand interacts with its customers and whether consumers would recommend it to others.

Overall, brand trust tends to increase as consumers age, according to the school. However, it tends to decrease as the income of the consumer increases. Generally, females are more trusting than men, the Index also found.

The top 10 most trusted brands include:

MEC (Mountain Equipment Co-op)
President’s Choice
Costco
Home Hardware
Shoppers Drug Mart / Pharmaprix
Canon
DavidsTea
Fairmont Hotels & Resorts
Band-Aid
Columbia Sportswear