Blue Apron Holdings, Inc. reports third quarter 2021 results

Picture credit: Bloomberg.com

Key Highlights:

● Net revenue for the third quarter 2021 decreased approximately 2% year over year to $109.7 million and increased approximately 10% compared to net revenue in the pre-pandemic third quarter of 2019.

● Continued year over year growth in Average Order Value, which increased over 6% to $62.30, reflecting the benefit of the company’s growth strategy. Average Order Value, Orders per Customer and Average Revenue per Customer all showed strong growth compared to the pre-pandemic third quarter of 2019, despite modest declines in those metrics from a year ago as seasonality returned.

● Third quarter 2021 net loss was $27.6 million, inclusive of a non-cash charge of approximately $6.4 million related to the change in fair value of the warrant obligation issued to the company’s lenders. Adjusted EBITDA was a loss of $11.7 million.

● Subsequent to the third quarter, strengthened balance sheet and significantly improved financial flexibility by completing an equity capital raise with gross proceeds of $78.0 million.

● Plans to use a portion of the net proceeds from the capital raise to significantly increase investments in marketing initiatives in 2022, primarily to drive new customer growth which is expected to result in at least mid-teens percentage year over year net revenue growth.

● Announced plans for expanded Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) initiatives.

New York, NY – November 9, 2021 – Blue Apron Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: APRN) announced today financial results for the quarter ended September 30, 2021.

“Our focus on providing increased variety and flexibility to our customers through the continued roll out of product innovations, including Heat & Eat, our first-ever prepared, single-serving meal, has proven to be successful, as evident in the growth of our Average Order Value (AOV) to a third quarter record of $62.30. We are encouraged by 2021 third quarter net revenue of $109.7 million, which marked a more than 10% increase compared to the third quarter of 2019, which we accomplished despite the return to more normal seasonality experienced in Q3, as well as external challenges related to higher labor, food and logistics costs. We also maintained a strong rate of five orders per customer in the quarter, even as travel was cited by customers as the greatest driver of cycle skips in the third quarter and at the highest level since we started tracking the data,” said Linda Findley, Blue Apron’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “Blue Apron’s attractive customer subscription business model combined with an e-commerce go-to-market strategy positions us to build on the strength of our key customer metrics in order to grow consistently. Customers are now ordering from us over 20 times a year on average and are increasingly adding a broader variety of products to each order. Our focus on leveraging product innovation and flexibility to attract, engage and retain higher-value customers has established a foundation for sustainable strength in our key customer metrics.”

“In the 2021 third quarter, we also announced a $78.0 million equity capital raise, which was completed last week. This provides us with capital to continue to invest in our growth strategies, including further strengthening our market position in 2022 and beyond. Throughout the fourth quarter, we are preparing Blue Apron for a series of aggressive marketing initiatives next year, including spend in new customer acquisition channels. Our marketing investments are primarily focused on accelerating new customer growth in 2022 from our total addressable market, which we have identified as approximately 55 million U.S. households based on our key demographics. We remain focused on expanding our customer base and the ongoing execution of our

growth strategies with the goal of driving at least mid-teens percentage year-over-year net revenue growth in 2022. We expect the benefits of scale resulting from increases in customers and net revenue, combined with our capex-light business model, will over the long-term drive additional liquidity which we can deploy to deliver consistent improvements in our offerings and results and grow shareholder value.”