Tempo, the ready-to-heat meal delivery service operated by Home Chef — itself a subsidiary of The Kroger Co. — is launching a consumer campaign called the Cook Never Club, citing proprietary survey data showing Americans collectively forfeit more than 300 hours per year to meal-related tasks.
The survey, fielded by Tempo and released Monday, found U.S. adults spend more than six hours each week on meal planning, grocery shopping, cooking, and post-meal cleanup combined. Annualised, that figure exceeds 13 full days — a framing the brand is deploying to position ready-to-heat delivery as a time-recovery product rather than a convenience indulgence.
The Market Opportunity
The timing reflects intensifying competition in the broader meal solutions category. Traditional meal-kit operators have spent the better part of a decade fighting subscriber churn, and the pivot toward fully prepared, heat-only formats has accelerated across the segment. Tempo sits at that intersection: it carries Home Chef's supply-chain infrastructure and Kroger's retail distribution muscle, but markets itself as a distinct, lower-friction alternative to both scratch cooking and conventional kit assembly.
Millennials and Gen Z are the stated target. Both cohorts over-index on time scarcity as a wellness concern — a dynamic that has driven double-digit growth in the ready-to-eat and ready-to-heat segments over the past two years, according to category tracking data from multiple retail analysts. For Kroger, monetising that demand through a proprietary brand rather than ceding the transaction to third-party platforms represents a meaningful margin opportunity.
Competitive Context
Home Chef already competes directly with HelloFresh, Blue Apron, and a growing roster of grocerant and ghost-kitchen operators on the meal-kit and prepared-foods shelf. The Cook Never Club positioning signals a deliberate effort to step outside that crowded kit-assembly frame and appeal to consumers who have already decided they do not want to cook — rather than those still willing to follow a recipe card.
For foodservice and grocery observers, the campaign is also a data-collection exercise. Surveys of this type typically seed consumer segmentation models and inform SKU expansion decisions. Tempo's emphasis on Millennial and Gen Z time anxiety suggests the brand is building toward a product or tier aimed at younger urban households — a demographic that indexes high on delivery and subscription commerce but low on brand loyalty within the category.
Home Chef has not disclosed Tempo's current subscriber count or revenue contribution to Kroger's overall portfolio. Kroger reports its Home Chef operations within its broader digital and specialty segment.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.