Is HelloFresh worlds most profitable online grocer?

As one of the big pandemic winners (like other online grocers), HelloFresh revenues jumped by more than 100% in 2020. From this heightened level, HelloFresh grew in 2021 by 60%.

During the latter part of the year the growth plateaued from 100+% in Q1 to 40+% in Q3 and Q4.

This rapid growth has propelled the company into almost 6bn€ revenue, which makes it a mid-sized European grocery retailer and probably the biggest pure play online grocery retailer in Europe. For example HelloFresh is more than double the size of Ocado.

The rapid growth has not come at the expense of profits. During 2021 HelloFresh reported a 6,5% EBIT margin.

A very high number for any grocer, let alone for a rapidly growing online grocery retailer.

With the increasing scale, the share of fixed costs will go down at the same time as the sourcing terms become more affordable. Who said online grocery could not be profitable?