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Coles offers meal plans and meal kits in war with rivals Hello Fresh and Marley Spoon

Coles is entering the convenience war by offering a new way to get shoppers’ meals on their plate faster, saving time and angst in the supermarket.

04/08/2016: The South Yarra Coles Express Pilot Store. Stuart McEvoy for The Australian.
04/08/2016: The South Yarra Coles Express Pilot Store. Stuart McEvoy for The Australian.

Coles is upping the ante in the convenience war by offering fast meal plans and meal kits in a bid to win more customers over.

The move comes after the supermarket giant conducted a survey of more than 40,000 dinners consumed by Coles customers.

The survey found while 94 per cent of shoppers eat dinner, 55 per cent choose what they want to eat on the day.

Three out of five prepare meals in less than 30 minutes while two out of three eat before 7pm.

One out of three shoppers use short cuts in the kitchen and they find preparing ingredients to be the biggest pain point when cooking dinner.

Coles is changing its offering for shoppers. Picture: Stuart McEvoy for The Australian.
Coles is changing its offering for shoppers. Picture: Stuart McEvoy for The Australian.

They are also worried if the if the meal is cooked right and face time constraints.

The supermarket’s new offering is seen as a direct shot at rivals Hello Fresh and Marley Spoon.

According to Hello Fresh’s Food Report from last year, the company delivered more than 62 million vegetables to households across Australia and customers cooked 685 different recipes from 26 different cuisines.

Hello Fresh’s top Australian dinners were Prawn Thai Red Curry, Lemon Chicken and Chorizo Crumb and Parmesan-crumbed Chicken burger.

In direct response, Coles has launched 48 ‘What’s for Dinner’ meal plans that can be made in 30 minutes and use no more than five ingredients.

Coles' new Mexican Taco dish. Picture: Supplied
Coles' new Mexican Taco dish. Picture: Supplied

Coles Chief Marketing Officer Lisa Ronson said the campaign is designed to make life easier.

“This year, we undertook one of the biggest customer studies ever conducted into the dinner time habits of Australians to really understand customer pain points and how we can help them through great value food solutions,” she said.

“We have created meal plans to help customers with some of the biggest challenges they face preparing dinner every night — from lack of time to cook from scratch to kids who turn their nose up at healthy options, and boredom with cooking the same handful of dishes every week because it seems too hard to try something new.”

Dishes on Coles’ website include Lamb Souvlaki Wraps, Mexican Tacos, Garlic Butter Steak with Potatoes and Baked Lemon Chicken with Spring Greens.

Originally published as Coles offers meal plans and meal kits in war with rivals Hello Fresh and Marley Spoon

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Original URL: https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/business/companies/coles-offers-meal-plans-and-meal-kits-in-war-with-rivals-hello-fresh-and-marley-spoon/news-story/43ee4c8d15657cc799e19c586268ba4b