In 2014, Home Chef began assembling its meal kits in a 52,000-square-foot former commissary near Chicago’s Midway Airport. Within a year, the company was delivering 70,000 meals per month. Growth continued to skyrocket, setting CEO and Founder Pat Vihtelic on a path to locating a larger facility. He settled on a location in the Chicago suburb of Bedford Park, where he decided to build the company’s first new facility from the ground up.
In early March, Vihtelic stood with the Home Chef team, golden novelty scissors in hand, to declare the facility officially open.
“Scaling operations has been one of the biggest challenges, and that’s why we’ve kept our finger on the pulse of capacity, operational efficiency and other metrics,” said Vihtelic. “It’s been quite a ride, but we’re happy to have a facility that is built to suit our operation.”