Sun Basket Opens Larger East Coast Distribution Center to Accommodate Rapid Growth and Demand
Facility opening comes on the heels of Sun Basket's $57.8M in new funding and builds capacity to reach $500M business on East Coast
Feb 28, 2018, 09:00 ET
SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Sun Basket, the leading healthy meal kit service delivering the best organic produce and clean ingredients with delicious, easy recipes weekly to your door, today opened its new East Coast distribution center in Westampton, New Jersey. The 190,000-square-foot facility will replace the previous facility, which the company outgrew due to increased demand and growth. The new facility has the potential to support half-a-billion-dollars in revenue for Sun Basket. Since launching its first East Coast distribution center, Sun Basket has added 400 new jobs to the local economy.
The new distribution center is six times larger than Sun Basket's previous East Coast facility, a testament to the company's rapid growth and need for expansion. Sun Basket now has the capacity to ship five to ten times more meal kits on the East Coast, where the company is thriving in new user acquisition. Sun Basket's direct-to-consumer model continues to disrupt the $650B grocery market. By cutting-out the grocery store "middleman," Sun Basket delivers:
- Fresher food: Sun Basket delivers food from farm-to-fork twice as fast as the traditional grocery model, resulting in fresher food and lower food waste.
- Greater reach: Sun Basket reaches 98 percent of the continental U.S. through its three distribution centers, reaching more consumers than any brick-and-mortar grocery chain in the country.
- Superior economics: Sun Basket's direct model results in dramatically lower CAPEX and higher margins.
"Our rapid growth and need for a much larger East Coast facility is an amazing vote of confidence from customers, and it's a clear sign that there is a huge market for healthy, delicious meals which meet consumers' diet-specific needs," said Adam Zbar, CEO and Co-Founder of Sun Basket. "We will continue to upgrade our facilities with automation, which improves efficiency and provides customers with an even more personalized experience."
Sun Basket plans on equipping the new East Coast facility with a combination of state-of-the-art automation and data management tools. This will allow Sun Basket to increase the facility's operational efficiency, thereby increasing margins. It will also allow Sun Basket to provide its customers with greater choice and the ability to personalize their meals, and help realize the company's mission to become the "Netflix of Food" by building out its Healthy Personal Choice Platform.
Employees of the new distribution center will reap the benefits of Sun Basket's Employee Engagement Culture Program, including the following:
- Training classes for new hires to help find their niche and ease into their first few weeks on the job.
- Continuing education courses, which include training modules for regulatory items such as food safety, along with brand-specific trainings.
- The ability to celebrate the values of the company by keeping its mission statements on the walls and creating a laid-back, California culture, true to its West Coast corporate offices.
- A weekly farmers market, allowing them to take home surplus produce and vegetables.
For more information about Sun Basket, please visit www.sunbasket.com.
About Sun Basket
Founded in San Francisco in 2014 by Webby-winner Adam Zbar and Chef Justine Kelly, the former Head Chef at the Slanted Door, a James Beard Award-winning restaurant, Sun Basket is an innovative healthy cooking service, which delivers the best pre-measured organic produce & clean ingredients and easy, delicious recipes weekly to your door. Sun Basket saves busy people the time of planning and shopping so they can focus on the fun part of cooking and enjoying a meal. Personalized for your lifestyle and diet, Sun Basket provides a seasonally inspired Chef's Choice meal plan, along with Paleo, Lean & Clean, Gluten-Free, Vegan, Vegetarian, Pescatarian, and Mediterranean options. Located in San Francisco, Sun Basket is backed by top-tier venture capitalists. Don Barnett, co-founder of organicgirl produce, is the COO. For more information, please visit https://sunbasket.com or find the brand on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest or Twitter.
SOURCE Sun Basket