HelloFresh shares plunge as customers numbers slip in Q3

Shares in HelloFresh tumbled over 10% on Thursday after the Berlin-based meal-kit subscription group missed revenue and customer forecasts in the third quarter.

Revenues in the three months to 30 September were down 3% year-on-year at €1.8bn, missing consensus forecasts of €1.83bn. On a constant-currency basis, however, sales increased by 3.5%.

Orders per customer rose 2.3% to 3.96, but the total number of orders fell 3.6% to 27.99m as active customer numbers declined 5.9% to 7.07m, under market forecasts of 7.28m.

Active customers in North America were down 4.9% to 3.95m, while international active customers fell 7.2% to 3.12%.

Meanwhile, adjusted EBITDA for the quarter totalled €69.8m, down 3.7% on last year.

Looking ahead, the company said it is still expecting 2% to 8% growth in constant-currency revenues for the year, and adjusted EBITDA of €470m to €540m, compared with €477m.

Analysts at Jefferies said the results were "broadly a -1% miss on key metrics". They said that active users was "probably the figure the market is most interested in given the key customer acquisition September month".

The stock was down 10.5% at €21.79 in Frankfurt.