Blue Apron names Brad Dickerson as new CEO

Lucas Jackson | Reuters

Blue Apron CEO Matthew B. Salzberg speaks on the floor of the Exchange during the company’s IPO on the New York Stock Exchange, June 29, 2017.

Meal-kit company Blue Apron announced Thursday that CFO Brad Dickerson will replace co-founder Matt Salzberg as CEO. Salzberg will become executive chairman.

“It has been a tremendous honor to serve as the CEO of Blue Apron since founding the company and I am incredibly proud of everything our team has accomplished together in just five years,” said Salzberg.

Dickerson joined as CFO in February 2016, having previously worked as CFO of Under Armour.

Blue Apron has been been rocked with challenges since going public earlier this year. This meal kit company, which was once valued at $2.2 billion by private market investors, now has a market capitalization of $568 million.

Just as the company was about to start marketing its IPO, Amazon announced its industry-changing acquisition of Whole Foods. The deal has led many to speculate Amazon will expand its own meal kit program, which only intensified when Amazon filed a meal-kit trademark.

The unprofitable company has continued to struggle to balance its costly business model with the money needed to acquire and maintain new subscribers for its service. The number of its customers shrunk 6 percent in the third quarter.

Blue Apron also said its new fulfillment center turned out to be too costly.

It reported a loss of 47 cents per share the most recent quarter, steeper than analyst expectations of a loss of 42 percent a share.