• Checkers will launch meal kits in its stores from Wednesday, August 23rd.
  • Shoppers will get boxes with ingredients and instructions for chef-designed meals.
  • It is the first retailer to enter the meal-kit market, which is seeing  strong growth in South Africa.
Checkers will launch meal kits in its stores on Wednesday.
It has hired chefs to design gourmet dinners, and shoppers will be able to buy all the ingredients for the meal packaged together, along with a step-by-step recipe card as well as a QR code to a how-to video.
Meal kits have taken off in a big way in South Africa, with UCook and Daily Dish expanding rapidly in recent months. The two providers deliver the ingredients and instructions for three to four meals a week directly to their subscribers.
Three years after launching from a garage in Cape Town, the biggest meal kit provider, UCook,  is now close to delivering 100,000 meals a month. It is expected to hit R79.5 million in turnover by the end of the year. 
Checkers is the first retailer to offer an in-store service, with Woolworths expected to also enter the market soon.

Read: We compared SA's dinner-kit services UCook and Daily Dish – and the winner was clear for one key and one minor reason

The Checkers Ready to Chef meal kits are priced between R119.99 and R179.99 per box (with enough food for two people). UCook charges R630 for a box with three meals for two people; Daily Dish's "classic" box for two people holds four meals for R870. On per-head per-meal basis, that means UCook comes in at R105 – while Daily Dish costs R109. Both include delivery costs.
The Checkers meal kit, which will be launched in stores.
Four different recipes, including a vegetarian option, will be available in Checkers and Checkers Hyper stores each week.
There are a total of 16 meal kits in the Ready to Chef range, which include:
  • Butter chicken curry with rotis
  • Cauliflower cottage pie
  • Asian beef and sesame seed salad
  • Mushroom, pea and mint risotto
  • Beef stroganoff with zucchini spaghetti
  • Sweet and sour pork with jasmine rice
  • Biltong niçoise salad
  • Sweet potato and lentil dahl curry with buttered naan (vegetarian)
 The Checkers Ready to Chef meal kits will be available from Wednesday 23 August.
 

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