Ritual Founder Attributes Rapid Growth to Slow Start
*By Amanda Weston*
Food pickup app Ritual has big expansion plans. But its founder says the company's rapid growth can actually be traced back to a slower start.
"Ritual's about your neighborhood, and I think what a lot of other companies did differently was they tried to go too broad too quickly, and they just lack the depth and coverage that Ritual has," Ray Reddy, co-founder and CEO of Ritual, told Cheddar Wednesday. "And we still approach the world neighborhood by neighborhood, and ensure that it's actually compelling."
"There's enough coffee and lunch assortment in every neighborhood, and I think we've really just gotten the model right over the last few years, and so now that that's baked, we're able to move really, really fast."
Ritual bills itself as an app that connects restaurants with customers, offering a simple, time-saving tool to arrange lunch orders for both individuals and workplace teams.
The company announced Wednesday it has expanded into the U.K. and Australia, with more plans for European growth. It is also set to be in more than 40 North American cities and have more than triple its merchant count by the end of 2019.
The food app space is growing increasingly more crowded, but Reddy isn't fazed by the competition.
"It makes sense to have a first party app to focus on maybe your top five to 10 percent of your customers, but the remaining 80 percent are likely going to be on apps like Ritual or other types of third parties," Reddy said. "As a brand, your choice is do you want to still have a conversation with those customers? Do you want to still market to them even if you can't through the app directly? And I think the answer for the most part is yes."
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/food-app-ritual-is-cooking-up-big-growth-for-2019).
Nestlé has dismissed its CEO Laurent Freixe after an investigation into an undisclosed relationship with a direct subordinate. The company announced on Monday that the dismissal was effective immediately. An investigation found that Freixe violated Nestlé’s code of conduct. He had been CEO for a year. Philipp Navratil, a longtime Nestlé executive, will replace him. Chairman Paul Bulcke stated that the decision was necessary to uphold the company’s values and governance. Navratil began his career with Nestlé in 2001 and has held various roles, including CEO of Nestlé's Nespresso division since 2024.
Kraft Heinz is splitting into two companies a decade after they joined in a massive merger that created one of the biggest food companies on the planet. One of the companies will include brands such as Heinz, Philadelphia cream cheese and Kraft Mac & Cheese. The other will include brands like Oscar Mayer, Kraft Singles and Lunchables. When the company formed in 2015 it wanted to capitalize on its massive scale, but shifting tastes complicated those plans, with households seeking to introduce healthier options at the table. Kraft Heinz's net revenue has fallen every year since 2020.
