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Meal kit outfit Blue Apron makes market debut with shares at issue price

Last updated: 11:12 29 Jun 2017 EDT, First published: 10:44 28 Jun 2017 EDT

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Blue Apron aims to make its stock market debut

Meal kit firm Blue Apron opened around the issue price at $10 a share in its market debut after yesterday reporting it had cut the price range for its stock market float amid big changes in the retail delivery world thanks to the recent Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) deal.

The latter's $13.7 billion deal to buy Whole Foods Market Inc has weighed on prospects for the meal-kit industry and the IPO price cut was ssen as a possible sign of the difficulty Blue Apron is having attracting investors.

 

Blue Apron lowered its IPO price range to between $10 and $11 per share from a previous estimate of $15 to $17 per share.

 

Indeed, Amazon already has a small meal-kit business, delivering ingredients and recipes to customers in some US cities. Its deal with Whole Foods  would provide it with a ready-made distribution system for food delivery in the form of traditional grocery stores.

Blue Apron's new pricing guidance gives the company a valuation of up to $2.08bn

It is the biggest US meal-kit company and the first set to go public.

The stock started changing hands on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol 'APRN'.

Blue Apron recorded growing revenue of $795.4mln last year, up from $340 million in 2015 but net losses came in at $54.9 million in 2016, wider than losses of $47 million in 2015 and $30.8 million in 2014.

Its workforce is rapidly growing. It had 1,051 full-time employees in 2014 and now has 5,202 as of March 2017.

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