Sustainable Grocery Brand Misfits Market Acquires Imperfect Foods In Blockbuster Deal

Misfits Market, the grocery brand dedicated to making affordable, high-quality food more accessible while breaking the cycle of food waste, has announced the acquisition of Imperfect Foods, another grocery brand. Imperfect Foods is dedicated to sustainability and affordability, specifically, so it is a natural partnership between overlapping brands.

This acquisition will put both brands on track to surpass $1 billion in sales, with hopes of reaching profitability by 2024. Why does this matter? This move should create a significant opportunity for a more sustainable online grocery experience for all consumers — not just wealthy or urban shoppers.

Imperfect Foods was founded to solve the issue of excess grocery waste, as the common practice of discarding deformed or bruised produce became more well-known. With their delivery network designed with sustainability in mind, Imperfect Foods gives Misfits Market an even better position to build out a supply chain that improves efficiency, prices, and user experience for the online grocery market. 

“We have a tremendous opportunity to advance the shared mission of both brands, which is nothing less than a fundamental re-imagining of both the grocery category and the broken U.S. food system,” said Abhi Ramesh, CEO and Founder of Misfits Market. “The strengths of the Imperfect Foods organization, from its in-house delivery fleet and robust private label program to its sustainability commitments and innovation, add immediate scale and depth to what we’re building at Misfits Market.”

When Misfits Market officially acquires Imperfect Foods, one of their first tests will be delivering these “innovative” foods in a subscription service

From Imperfect Foods CEO, Dan Park, “Scale matters in grocery, and this combination makes us a truly meaningful disruptor in the space… Both organizations have made significant progress as individual brands — together we have already rescued nearly 500 million of pounds of food that may otherwise have gone to waste, and driven innovation in a category propped up by antiquated technology and thinking. The combined experience and expertise of this newly merged team will exponentially increase our ability to take on established players in the traditional grocery space.”

The United States is facing two contradicting issues: food scarcity in low-income areas, as well as excess food waste in highly populated areas. This acquisition has the potential to make better-for-you foods more accessible to those who need them, and reduce the amount of food waste our country produces all in one fell swoop.

Misfits Market uses a subscription model where consumers enroll in weekly grocery deliveries. If the buyer does not specify which foods they want to buy each week, Misfits will auto-sell them an assortment of foods based on prior purchases. The subscription model encourages regular, weekly spending, which will be important if they are to introduce “imperfect” foods into their offerings.