Vancouver-based meal-kit company Fresh Prep is expanding its reach across Canada with the acquisition of Montreal's Goodfood, adding approximately 30,000 active customers and strengthening its presence in Eastern Canada.

Goodfood, which sought creditor protection earlier this year, brings an established customer base in Quebec and Eastern Canada to Fresh Prep, which has been steadily expanding beyond its Western Canadian roots. The acquisition also includes the retention of more than 80 per cent of Goodfood's employees.

“Goodfood is such a established brand. What they built in Eastern Canada and Quebec specifically, has just been so impressive,” Becky Brauer, co-chief executive officer and co-founder of Fresh Prep told FoodNX in an interview.

“It’s always been our dream to bring the joy of food to more Canadians, and this was a great way to do it.”

Integrating Goodfood's customers, employees

A key attraction of the acquisition was the opportunity to bring Goodfood's established customer base into the Fresh Prep business.

“Basically we’ve acquired some of the assets. They have about 30,000 active customers that Fresh Prep will be servicing moving forward; not immediately after the closing date but in the coming months,” she said.

In addition to adding to its customer base, Fresh Prep felt it was key to maintain similar staffing levels.

“We ended up keeping over 80 per cent of the employees, which was really important to us, and so we’ll be focusing on integrating the employees, making sure that the operation is running really smoothly, and making sure that we’re building trust with the 30,000 customers that we’ll be welcoming to Fresh Prep,” Brauer said.

The timeline to get fully integrated is short, she said, and hopes to get that accomplished by the week of Dec. 5.

“We’ll be working over the next few weeks to start communicating with the active Goodfood customers, and then their final order date would be after the Nov. 25 cutoff for Goodfood customers. After that cutoff, they would be welcomed to Fresh Prep.”

Lessons from a previous acquisition

Fresh Prep is drawing on its experience acquiring Montreal-based Cook it Recipes Inc. in 2024.

“I think really what we learned throughout that process is that the people come first, and building team and building culture is so important to that transition period,” she said.

“So that’s really where we’re focusing our time and efforts is just providing clarity to staff; making sure that everybody feels welcome and that everybody is on the same page.”

And that transition period was successful, according to Brauer. “One of the things that we were able to achieve with the Cook It transition is that we retained over 80 per cent of their active ordering customer base to this day, they’re still ordering with Fresh Prep.”

“So we’re just looking forward to continuing that with Goodfood’s customers and building that same level of trust.”

Despite the challenges facing Goodfood, Brauer believes the meal-kit industry remains well positioned to serve Canadians looking for convenient meal options amid increasingly busy lifestyles.

“(Fellow co-founders) Dhruv (Sood), Husein (Rahemtulla), and myself have all had kids in the past couple years, so we are now leaning on meal kits more than ever, and I think so many Canadians still are. The meal kit business can be a strong one and a profitable one, and it’s a product people want when it’s done really well,” Brauer said.

Fresh Prep was founded in 2015 in Vancouver, and expanded into Alberta in 2021. It moved into Quebec and Ontario with the Cook It purchase and the Goodfood acquisition further strengthens its presence in those markets.

Push for Canadian-owned operations

The Elbows Up movement, fuelled in part by U.S. tariffs and trade tensions, has also highlighted the importance many Canadians place on supporting domestic businesses.

“People also are looking for Canadian-owned and Canadian-operated businesses now more than ever, and Fresh Prep now is Canada’s biggest and number-one choice, being Canadian-owned.”

“I think we’re just continuing to invest in product. We’re continuing to invest in experience, and we’re going to continue to innovate in the space as well, and not shut out new ideas.”