Mail.ru Group, a leading, LSE-listed Russian Internet company, has acquired a minority stake in Performance Food, a Moscow-based food delivery service specializing in premium healthy nutrition programs. The financial details of the deal were not disclosed.
As reported by business daily Kommersant, which cites official company registers, MGL Mail.ru Equity Ltd, a Cyprus-based subsidiary of Mail.ru Group, acquired 4% stake in Cyprus-based PFLK Group Ltd, the owner Performance Food.
Performance Food touts itself as the largest group of companies producing custom-made ready-to-eat meals in Russia.
Performance Food now offers about 50 nutrition programs designed for different purposes, with a nutrition value ranging from 900 to 6,000 kcal a day. Depending on the menu, the daily value of a program ranges from 1,500 to 2,300 rubles (roughly $23.8 to $36.5 at the current exchange rate). The service offers a free delivery in Moscow and a paid delivery to nearby areas within 50 km range.
One of the group’s projects, ‘Level Kitchen,’ specializes in more affordable fitness nutrition programs.
A spokesman for Mail.ru Group told Kommersant that with this deal the company hopes “to look into the principles of how such food tech projects operate.”
The Infoline analytics agency estimates that Performance Food controls 25% of the Russian market of custom-made ready-to-eat meals in 2018. Since this market reached 2.6 billion rubles (about $41 million) in 2018, Performance Food could well have generates 650 million rubles (some $10 million) in revenues.
According to Infoline, Grow Food is the leader of the ready-to-eat meals market, with a share of 42%. Another competitor is Yandex.Chef with a 16% market share.
This market could exceed 20 billion rubles ($317 million at today’s exchange rate) by 2022.
The food delivery business is nothing new to Mail.ru Group. In 2016, it acquired 100% of Delivery Club, the number one food delivery company in Russia. Currently, this service operates in 115 cities in Russia, offering delivering means from about 9,500 restaurants.
Update Nov. 28, 2019: Performance Group acquired one of its competitors, Easy Meal, in a bid to assert a stronger position against market leader Grow Food.
