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An unlikely company is building a Blue Apron killer in the $5 billion battle for your dinner

Nov 1, 2016, 02:00 IST

Facebook/Sun Basket

Williams-Sonoma is getting into the meal-kit business.

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The cookware company is partnering with San Francisco startup Sun Basket to offer organic, non-GMO meal kits bundled with Williams-Sonoma kitchen tools.

The meal kits include ingredients for three meals a week portioned for groups of two, four, or six people.

The meals cost $11.49 per person, or $68.94 per week for two people, $137.88 per week for four people, and $206.82 per week for six people.

Starting Tuesday, Williams Sonoma will be advertising Sun Basket to its customers through email and social media marketing campaigns.

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Anyone who signs up for the service through Williams-Sonoma's website will get $60 worth of Williams-Sonoma cookware for free in their first delivery.

Williams-Sonoma

Sun Basket will also start featuring Williams-Sonoma recipes in its meal kits on a weekly basis.

Sun Basket CEO Adam Zbar said the partnership is expected to have a massive impact on Sun Basket's sales.

"It's a really exciting partnership for us," he said in an interview with Business Insider. "It helps elevate our brand and take it to a national audience."

The meal kit industry has been expanding rapidly in recent years and is on track to grow to between $3 billion and $5 billion over the next 10 years, according to Technomic, a food-industry consulting firm.

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Like Williams-Sonoma, Whole Foods is also trying to tap into the trend. The company is testing a meal-kit service called Purple Carrot at a store in Dedham, Massachusetts starting this month. The kits, each containing three meals, will be available for purchase at the Whole Foods store.

Facebook/Sun Basket

The leading meal-kit services today are Blue Apron (with about 71% of the market), Hello Fresh (with 23% of the market(, and Plated (with 6% of the market), according to 1010data.

Unlike those leading companies, however, Sun Basket offers organic, non-GMO ingredients. It also offers menu tailoring for paleo, gluten-free, and vegetarian diets.

But it costs slightly more than its competitors.

Sun Basket costs $68.94 per week for three meals that each feed two people. Blue Apron, by comparison, costs $60 for the same amount of food.

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Sun Basket launched two years ago, but it only recently expanded nationwide.

It currently serves 86% of US zip codes in 43 states, and is expected to reach 98% of zip codes by next year.

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