Who Owns Factor?
Factor is owned by HelloFresh SE (ETR: HFG), the German meal kit company that acquired the brand in December 2020 for up to $277 million. Factor was founded in 2013 as Factor75 in the Chicago area and delivers fully prepared, fresh, never-frozen meals designed around keto, high-protein, and other health-focused diets across the contiguous United States.
Factor Timeline
Who Owns Factor?
- Parent Company: HelloFresh SE
- Ownership Type: Wholly owned
- Acquisition Year: 2020
- Company Type: Publicly Traded
- Stock Ticker: ETR: HFG
| Brand | Parent Company | Ownership Type |
|---|---|---|
| Factor | HelloFresh SE | Wholly owned |
Where to Buy
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Factor on AmazonHistory of Factor
- Founded: 2013
- Founders: Mike Apostal
- Acquired by HelloFresh SE: 2020
Factor was founded in 2013 in the Chicago area as Factor75, a fully prepared meal delivery service built around a specific nutritional thesis: roughly 75 percent of how a person looks, feels, and performs comes from nutrition. The name encoded that formula.
Mike Apostal joined as a co-founder and CEO in 2015. A Northwestern Kellogg alumnus with a venture capital background, Apostal was introduced to the early-stage company through business school connections. Under his leadership the company grew on a direct-to-consumer subscription model, shipping chef-prepared, dietitian-designed meals that customers heat in minutes rather than cook.
The product fit a specific gap. Meal kits required cooking time that health-focused professionals often lacked, while restaurant delivery offered convenience without nutritional control. Factor's rotating weekly menus covered keto, paleo, low-carb, vegetarian, plant-based, and high-protein diets, with every meal free of refined sugars, gluten, soy, hormones, and GMO ingredients.
By 2020, Factor was generating approximately $100 million in annual revenue and had built four production and fulfillment facilities. In November 2020, HelloFresh's US subsidiaries agreed to acquire the company for up to $277 million, with the deal closing on December 31, 2020. Apostal remained CEO through the transition, and the brand continued operating as a standalone unit.
After the acquisition, the brand simplified its name from Factor 75 to Factor, dropping the numerical reference in favor of what Apostal described as human language over math equations. Under HelloFresh ownership the service expanded capacity, grew its menu beyond meals into items like smoothies, juices, and snacks, and scaled into one of the leading prepared meal services in the United States.
About HelloFresh SE
Who owns HelloFresh?
HelloFresh SE is a publicly traded company listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under ticker HFG. The company went public in November 2017. Following the IPO, Rocket Internet's stake was gradually reduced, and the shareholder base is now composed primarily of institutional investors. Co-founders Dominik Richter and Thomas Griesel serve as co-CEOs and remain on the management board. The company has a single class of common stock with no dual-class share structure.
What is HelloFresh's revenue?
HelloFresh reported revenue of approximately €6.8 billion in FY2025, down 9 percent in constant currency from €7.7 billion in FY2024. Group adjusted EBITDA was €422.8 million, up 14 percent in constant currency. The meal kit category achieved an AEBITDA margin of 13.5 percent. For 2026, the company guided to revenue decline of 3 to 6 percent and AEBITDA of €375 to €425 million, adjusted for the impact of severe winter storms.
What brands does HelloFresh own?
HelloFresh owns 8 consumer brands: HelloFresh (flagship meal kits), EveryPlate (budget meal kits), Factor (ready-to-eat meals), Green Chef (organic meal kits), Chef's Plate (Canadian meal kits), Youfoodz (Australian ready-to-eat meals), Good Chop (meat and seafood subscription), and The Pets Table (pet food subscription). The company acquired Factor75 in November 2020 for up to $277 million.
Why did HelloFresh's stock decline?
HelloFresh's stock has lost approximately 90 percent of its market value since peaking in August 2021. The decline was driven by the reversal of pandemic-era growth, two profit warnings in November 2023 and March 2024, and the scrapping of mid-term revenue and profit targets. In March 2024, the stock plunged nearly 50 percent in a single day after the company warned that earnings would fall below expectations. JPMorgan noted that management's poor guidance track record had damaged investor confidence.
Is HelloFresh profitable?
HelloFresh reported group adjusted EBITDA of €422.8 million in FY2025, up 14 percent in constant currency from FY2024. The meal kit category was profitable with a 13.5 percent AEBITDA margin. However, the ready-to-eat category posted an AEBITDA loss in 2025 due to operational bottlenecks in the US market. The company is executing an efficiency program targeting €300 million in annual savings by 2026.
What is HelloFresh's efficiency program?
HelloFresh launched an efficiency program in the second half of 2024 targeting approximately €300 million in annual savings by 2026. The program includes permanent reductions in overhead, simplification of organizational layers, direct labor productivity gains, and network optimization. By year-end 2025, approximately 80 percent of the efficiency initiatives had been implemented. The program is part of a three-phase strategy: Growth Headwinds (2023 to 2024), Efficiency Reset (2025 to 2026), and Return to Growth (2027 and beyond).
Why did HelloFresh exit Spain and Italy?
In February 2026, HelloFresh announced it would cease operations in Spain and Italy, citing a lack of a viable path to profitability in those markets. The exits were part of a broader portfolio decision to reallocate capital and management attention toward markets and product investments with stronger long-term returns. The company had previously closed a distribution center in Britain in 2024, affecting approximately 900 employees, as part of the same efficiency program.
- Founded: 2011
- Headquarters: Berlin, Germany
- Company Type: Publicly Traded
- Stock: ETR: HFG
- Revenue: €6.8 billion (FY2025)
- Employees: Approximately 18,000
Where Is Factor Made / Based?
- Headquarters: Batavia, Illinois, USA
- Manufacturing / Operations: United States
Factor Categories & Tags
Factor Sustainability & Ethics
Factor's ethical posture follows its parent company's framework. HelloFresh publishes group-level sustainability reporting covering packaging reduction, food waste, and carbon commitments, with targets including reduced packaging per meal and lower food waste through demand forecasting.
At the brand level, Factor's nutritional positioning addresses ingredient sourcing claims: meals are marketed as free of refined sugars, gluten, soy, hormones, antibiotics, and GMO ingredients. These are the company's own product claims rather than independent certifications. Neither Factor nor HelloFresh holds B Corp status.
Factor Recalls & Controversies
As a food production business, Factor operates under USDA and FDA oversight. Isolated food safety incidents have occurred: prepared meal services broadly, including Factor, have issued occasional recalls or customer notices related to contamination risk in specific production batches, consistent with industry norms for fresh prepared food.
The broader criticism of the category concerns packaging waste from single-serving meal containers and insulation, an issue HelloFresh addresses through group packaging commitments. No major recall or regulatory action unique to Factor is on record.
Brands Owned by HelloFresh SE
Factor Ownership: Pros & Cons
Advantages
- +HelloFresh's procurement scale lowers ingredient and packaging costs
- +Access to parent company's logistics and fulfillment infrastructure
- +Capital availability for production facility expansion
- +Standalone operation preserves brand identity and product focus
- +Distribution synergies across HelloFresh's existing US customer base
Considerations
- -Prepared meal category is capital intensive with thin margins
- -Dependence on parent's strategic priorities within a cost-cutting corporate program
- -Subject to HelloFresh's efficiency program targeting €300 million in annual savings
- -Brand health is tied to parent company's public market performance and decisions
- -Consumer subscription fatigue and retention challenges affect the whole meal delivery category
Frequently Asked Questions About Factor
Sources & Further Reading
Competitors to Factor
No direct competitors found in the same category. This could be because Factoroperates in a unique market segment or we're still building our competitor database.
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HelloFresh SE Stock Information
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