Online grocer Farmstead has partnered with convenience retailer Circle K to advance both business’ operation with new capabilities. The alliance will open up new fulfillment options using Farmstead’s Grocery OS tech stack and Circle K’s retail footprint, and also expand Farmstead’s national supply chain for non-perishables and convenience items.
Additionally, both retailers will collaborate on distribution and co-marketing across a variety of new projects. The partnership also includes Circle K making an equity investment in Farmstead through the Circle K Venture Fund.
“The convenience landscape is changing dramatically,” said Kevin Lewis, Chief Marketing Officer at Circle K parent company Alimentation Couche-Tard in a statement. “When we met the Farmstead team, we saw an opportunity to partner with them, exploring and learning about the new behavior of our U.S. suburban consumers using ecommerce and last mile systems that lead to actual long-term profitability.”
“We are in the early innings of significant change in the U.S. food system, which requires new supply and technological alliances,” said Pradeep Elankumaran, Co-founder and CEO at Farmstead in a statement. “We’re thrilled to be partnering with Circle K on that journey, with its scale and decades of multinational experience in the convenience industry, and to be advancing with Circle K as an investor.”
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Food delivery, particularly rapid delivery, has been a hot space in the past several months. Multiple major players have either launched their own programs or enhanced their existing offerings, including:
- Grubhub partnered with real-time delivery service Buyk to expand its rapid delivery marketplace in February 2022, which builds on top of Grubhub’s launch of 15-minute delivery with no minimum spend and no delivery fees in NYC in September 2021;
- 7-Eleven formed its own partnership with Grubhub to expand the Grubhub Goods branded convenience concept nationwide;
- Albertsons announced a partnership with DoorDash to offer 30-minute delivery in more than 20 cities; and
- Gopuff, which provides delivery in as little as 30 minutes, expanded to NYC in October 2021.
