Case 1 årstiderne Gruppe 5, Kabas, An, Delal og Christopher

Introduction – Aarstiderne
Aarstiderne makes boxes of organic fruit, vegetables and colonials which are delivered to customers'
doorsteps following a subscription-based business. Today, Aarstiderne delivers to approx. 60,000 active
customers in Denmark and Sweden.1

Aarstiderne is considering making a reentry into the German market. We will be doing a brief external
analysis on the case using the PESTEL-model as well as the SWOT-model.

PESTEL analysis:
Political:
 Germany and Denmark are both members of the EU, so there is little to no trade barriers.
 Aarstiderne sells goods that already has EU organic certification.
Economics:
 High inflation has led to a record low in consumer sentiment2, i.e., people are less willing to spend
money on luxury goods and services, a category which Aarstidernes service falls within.

Statista, Consumer confidence, Germany, 2000-2022.

1
https://www.kapacity.dk/case/aarstiderne/
2
https://tradingeconomics.com/germany/consumer-confidence
Social:
 Changing cultural attitudes for example, ethical attitudes to animal husbandry, increased desire for
natural, untreated groceries, as well as supporting products of regional origin and regional
businesses. (The ranking from a survey conducted in Germany I 2021 among respondents aged 14
years and older). 3
 Additionally, the demographics in the bigger cities has shifted towards single-person households
becoming increasingly more common, this household group make up most of the customer base in
the meal-kit delivery market.
 Low employment rates have increased the demand for meal-kit delivery services, this demand
being seen especially amongst family households where both parents are employed (=Aarstiderne’s
main target group).
Technology:
 The technological advances in organic farming, enabling farming on a much larger and efficient
scale means the price-gap between organic and conventional food is shrinking.
 Aarstiderne’s business is based on sales online, easy access to PCs, tablets, smartphones in
Germany is still growing – increasing their reach.
Ecological:
 Organic farming is better for the environment as the lack of pesticides promotes biodiversity and a
healthier soil, which translates into less pollution, which then again translates into less government
spending on cleaning/preventing pollution.
Legal:
 The EU passed new legislation relating to the organic sector which applies from 1 January 2022 4,
albeit this was targeted towards producers and not resellers (Aarstiderne are both), strict
certification of products is still to be expected.
 Corporate tax in Germany is 15%

SWOT-analysis:
3
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1263684/organic-products-buying-reasons-germany/
4
https://agriculture.ec.europa.eu/farming/organic-farming/legislation_en
 Strengths:
 23 years of experience food-to-door and
mealkit delivery services.
 Established BTB and BTC business.
 Focus on sustainability
Opportunities:
 The demand for organic groceries has been
growing significantly in the last two
decades.5
 The number of consumers doing their
groceries online has also experienced high
growth in the last two decades, especially
during the COVID-19 pandemic 2020-21.
 The demand for sustainable goods is
growing
Weaknesses:
 Aarstiderne has previously tried to enter the
Germany market and failed
 Establishing a network of delivery partners in a new
market can affect product quality
Threats:
 Strong Competition, several players
o HelloFresh the largest meal kit subscription
company in the world dominates the space
with a majority market share.6
o HelloFresh lowered their outlook for 20227
 Climate change resulting in higher costs
 Too high inflation
 Declining consumer sentiment (record low)

Conclusion:
The economic climate in Germany (and worldwide in general) indicates that households are reducing their
consumption where possible. Currently, the price-gap between organic and conventional foods is shrinking
drastically, but not on a positive note, but because consumers are buying fewer organic foods to save
money.
Additionally, market conditions are not looking too bright for the meal kit service companies, HelloFresh,
who is Aarstidernes largest competitor in the space, are lowering their outlook significantly which is
another indicator for Aarstiderne, that for now, looking to expand to new markets, in Germany specifically,
might be a recipe (pun intended) for disaster.

5
https://www.statista.com/statistics/516703/revenues-organic-food-germany/
6
https://www.statista.com/study/92961/grocery-delivery-hellofresh-in-germany-brand-report/
7
https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/hellofresh-lowers-2022-outlook-citing-inflation-ukraine-war-
2022-07-20/