After ups and downs, meals supply startup Epicery closes store

French meal supply startup Grocery store will stop operations on Tuesday, after one final vacation hurray for its clients and native meals companies who used the platform throughout its 9 years of operation in trade for a 25% fee.

In a message asserting the choice to clients earlier this month, the Epicery workforce mentioned it was “the results of the financial and monetary challenges we have now been going through for a number of months and that, regardless of our greatest efforts, we can’t ‘we could not overcome’. »

With a concentrate on premium groceries and native deliveries, Epicery suffered when inflation triggered clients to rethink their meals spending. Even after ceasing its actions in sure cities, a negative EBITDA of -€4.69 million in 2023, on a turnover of €2.57 million.

However earlier than these difficulties, the startup reached surprising heights when France was locked down throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. It was nonetheless using this wave on the finish of 2021 when Geopost/DPDgroup, the specific parcel supply arm of Groupe La Poste, which manages the French nationwide postal service, took a majority stake within the firm.

The enterprise alliance made sense on the time: Geopost was additionally an investor in last-mile supply service Stuart, of which Epicery was an enormous consumer. However in current months, La Poste has severed its ties with a number of startups. already invested inand specifically, sold Stuart has a significant loss.

In a press release shared with TechCrunch, Geopost mentioned the choice was made “following an in-depth evaluation of [Epicery’s] monetary and operational efficiency” permitting us to conclude that “the quick and medium time period profitability of the subsidiary has been strongly impacted by the evolution of the meal supply market, the gradual post-Covid return to direct consumption in meals shops. proximity and powerful competitors out there. catering sector.

Meals supply in France in 2024 was very completely different from the early years of Epicery (launched in 2016). On the time, its opponents included Take Eat Straightforward, which ceased operations in 2016however Deliveroo and Uber Eats have been nowhere in sight, and quick commerce had not seen its rise and fall. Whereas Cajoo, Flink, Gopuff and Gorillas no longer works in Franceit was arduous to flee their advertising and marketing presence for fairly some time.

By comparability, Epicery’s measurement and visibility have all the time been modest. It had some 25,000 recurring clients, buying in some 1,100 comfort shops, primarily in Paris and Lyon, after scaling again its nationwide enlargement. This might need made sense as a standalone way of life firm, however arguably much less in order a venture-backed firm, and even much less in order half of a giant group the place numbers as these hardly shake issues up, particularly with the Stuart synergies gone.

Epicery co-founder and CEO Édouard Morhange was unable to touch upon strategic features because of a confidentiality settlement. In a private assertion, nevertheless, he commented on Epicery’s legacy. “I’m very proud to have launched native retailers to e-commerce over the previous 10 years, and I’m assured that they’ll proceed to develop their digital gross sales within the years to return. »

Morhange will stay energetic within the agri-food sector, claiming to be presently engaged on “an formidable new mannequin which is able to permit the agri-food business to proceed its digitalization in France and overseas”. As for Epicery staff, Geopost specifies that every of them will profit from “help from HR groups to debate alternatives throughout the Group or to assist them discover a job”.

French entrepreneur Nicolas Machard, whose meals market Pourdebon East also a subsidiary of Geopostexpressed confidence that Epicery staff will quickly get new positions. He’s additionally satisfied that Geopost and Pourdebon stay a superb complement, each when it comes to the mission and on the financial degree. Not solely is Pourdebon a heavy consumer of Geopost’s Chronofresh meals supply service, however additionally it is on observe to achieve profitability in 2027 and can doubtless try to achieve that milestone sooner.

Epicery did not make its profitability calculations work, but it surely typically generated as a lot as 10 and even 20 % in gross sales to the native shops it labored with. In keeping with Elsa Hermal, who co-founded Epicery with Morhange and VC Marc Menasé earlier than leaving operations in 2019, this can be a crucial step.

“What’s great and what is essential to me is that what we promised [shop owners] on the very starting, and what took us a very long time to realize, has now turn into an vital a part of their enterprise,” mentioned Hermal, who’s now a enterprise coach and influence investor, additionally thanks to the Satgana climate fund.

As an investor, Hermal is aware of that Epicery was working in a posh area of interest however doesn’t suppose it’s forbidden. “Logistics companies are difficult and troublesome when it comes to measurement, however that doesn’t imply it’s inconceivable. » Now that native companies have had a style of it, and in a context the place each sale counts, it would not be too stunning to see an Epicery mannequin make a comeback sooner or later.