When you see packaged fresh meals at your local grocery, convenience store, or other location, you may wonder if there’s a kitchen busy in back churning out recipes and ready-to-eat dishes. In reality, the meals may have been rushed to the store by a company like California-based FreshRealm—which is about to become North Texas-based following a Monday announcement.

FreshRealm, a national leader in “fresh meal solutions,” offers a “one-of-a-kind” meal platform that aims to drive innovation, quality, lower fixed costs, and better unit economics to support e-commerce, direct-to-consumer, brick and mortar food retailers, restaurants, and other food service providers across the U.S. 

The company says its “Just in Time” logistics network powers some of the largest diirect-to-consumer meal kit providers in the U.S.

Gettin’ cookin’—and hiring—in Lancaster

Snow Le was named FreshRealm’s first-ever president in September 2023. [Courtesy Photo]

The company said it broke ground in 2023 on new headquarters in Lancaster, just south of Dallas. The new office space will also serve as an employee hub and production space.

FreshRealm says the new facility at 3301 N. Dallas Avenue will enable it to produce “superior short shelf-life meals at a scale and solidify its position in the high growth fresh meals category.” The location provides FreshRealm an additional 88,000 square feet of dedicated space “for future-proofing their meal innovation and production capabilities,” the company added.

The Lancaster facility will feature “innovative food production capabilities, modern culinary build-outs, conference rooms, and office spaces for employees.” Production for “a full range of meals” will happen under one roof with a “best-in-class food quality and safety management system” to ensure the freshest and highest quality meals.

To support the HQ move and expansion, the company said it plans to hire for positions “across a range of roles” within the Lancaster area.

Transforming the future of the ‘surging meal solutions space’

“We’re thrilled to strengthen FreshRealm’s roots in the great state of Texas, where we will continue our focus on transforming the future of the surging meal solutions space,” Snow Le, the company’s president and a Texas resident for over 20 years, said in a statement.

“As someone who has raised my family in Texas, I know the rich heritage of hard work and incredible food this state offers, and Lancaster provides an ideal location for expanding our Texas-based workforce,” Le added. “We’re especially excited to be doing business in a dynamically growing region that is actively investing in its people and businesses.”

FreshRealm said that its innovative platform provides “unmatched scale, robust data, culinary expertise, flexible and fully customized fresh meals options, supply chain and quality assurance, and efficient nationwide fulfillment.” 

Acquired two meal kit providers for $74M in last year, following its 2022 $200M capital raise

FreshRealm has been heating up its growth in the last year with two big acquisitions.

In January, FreshRealm announced its $24 million acquisition of the operational assets of Marley Spoon, a leading global subscription-based meal kit provider. Under that deal, FreshRealm is taking over all of Marley Spoon’s U.S. operational and supply chain infrastructure, integrating them into its U.S.-based network. The transaction included Marley Spoon’s transfer to FreshRealm of three production and fulfillment facilities in Dallas; Newark, New Jersey; and Tracy, California.

After closing, FreshRealm said it would fulfill all orders for Marley Spoon U.S. customers nationwide, including for its bistroMD, Martha & Marley Spoon, and Dinnerly brands.

That acquisition followed FreshRealm’s May 2023 acquisition of the operational infrastructure of Blue Apron Holdings—a popular meal kit business—for around $50 million.

Those acquisitions followed FreshRealm’s July 2022 closing of a $200 million capital raise led by “a premier global cornerstone institutional investor.”

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