Goodfood, the publicly-traded Montreal-based online grocery company in Canada, has signed a lease for its first fulfillment centre in the Greater Toronto Area. The company will begin filling orders in May and will create over 300 new jobs.

“In the wake of accelerating penetration of online grocery in Canada resulting from the current pandemic, we are thrilled to have found a facility to service our current and future members in the GTA and Southern Ontario. We are excited to launch this new 42,000 square feet facility,” said Goodfood president Neil Cuggy.

Cuggy added that the company’s previous plans to build out a larger fulfillment centre in Toronto remain for 2021.

“The demand for online grocery delivered directly to customers’ doors has seen a strong uptick in recent weeks. This rapid acceleration in adoption is changing how Canadians shop for groceries now and in the future,” said CEO Jonathan Ferrari. “We firmly believe these changes in consumer habits are here to stay.”

Coronavirus having ‘positive impact’ on business

Jonathan Ferrari, Cuggy and Raffi Krikorian cofounded Goodfood in 2014 with the goal of changing the way Canadians cook. Ferrari and Cuggy quit their jobs at RBC Capital’s investment banking arm to set up a search fund, MTL Capital, the first of its kind in Quebec. But after raising an initial $400,000 in capital they decided the model wasn’t for them and paid back the rest of the cash.

They soon started GoodFood, named Culiniste at the time, and first took $1.1 million in investment cash from Hamnett Hill’s VC firm, Edo Capital. Needless to say, this decision proved to be fruitful for both the company and for Hill.

After that, they took $21 million in post-IPO equity.

The company earned over $66 million in revenue in 2019, and nearly matched that number in Q2 2020 alone. In an April earnings release, the company stated “we expect the pandemic to have a positive impact on revenues, with increased subscriber growth, order rates and average order values, but also expect our operations to be impacted by staffing and supply challenges also caused by the pandemic.”

Goodfood delivers fresh meal solutions and grocery items to Canadians. The company says its members can do their weekly meal planning and grocery shopping in less than 1 minute. Members get access to a unique online selection and unique pricing. The company’s direct to consumer fulfilment ecosystem makes that possible.

The Company has production facilities and offices in Montreal, Quebec, Calgary, AB and Vancouver, BC. It also has a breakfast facility in Montreal.

Goodfood had 246,000 active subscribers by the end of February.