NEW YORK (AP) – Meal-kit company Blue Apron delivered a small win to Wall Street Thursday: Its shares rose in their stock market debut.
The stock jumped as much as 10 percent in its debut but quickly retreated from that peak and was up about 1 percent in afternoon trading.
Blue Apron ships boxes to customers filled with all the raw ingredients needed to make home-cooked meals. It has many rivals, including HelloFresh and Plated, and there are concerns that competition to deliver groceries to people’s doorsteps will only heat up after e-commerce giant Amazon.com Inc. announced plans to buy organic grocer Whole Foods earlier this month.
In some cities, Amazon already sells meal kits with recipes created by home goods mogul Martha Stewart.
But CEO Matthew Salzberg dismissed concerns about competition. He said in a TV interview Thursday that more competition will only help convince people to skip the supermarket and buy their groceries online.