Misfits Market, born in Philly, moves its headquarters to Maryland

Misfits Market, a produce-delivery company born in Philadelphia, is moving its headquarters from Delanco, Burlington County, to Hanover, Md., right outside of Baltimore.

The company, which was launched in North Philadelphia in 2018, delivers boxes of produce directly to customers’ doorstep as a subscription service. The boxes contain fruits and vegetables that might not be as shiny and perfect-looking as those found in the supermarket but are just as tasty. This model saves food from going to waste and offers customers discounts on produce.

The move to Maryland is the latest restructuring for the company, which experienced rapid growth during the pandemic. Last year, Misfits bought Imperfect Foods, one of its competitors, which led to closures of some facilities and layoffs, as the company consolidated assets.

As a result, in April, the company closed its South Jersey fulfillment center and moved its operations and logistics to the Baltimore area. The company announced in March that it planned to lay off 446 workers at the South Jersey site.

Since it first was launched in North Philly, the company raised more than half a billion dollars from venture capitalists, including Japan’s Softbank, one of the largest investors in the world. In 2021, Misfits reached a $2 billion dollar valuation. The company has also now expanded to serve customers across the country.

“We needed to name that official headquarters for a bunch of different administrative reasons,” said Abhi Ramesh, the founder of the company.

Ramesh, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, still lives in Center City, as do other leadership team members, he said.

He won’t be commuting to a corporate office at the headquarters in Baltimore, though. The corporate team has been working remotely and will continue to do so in the future.

“Philadelphia is near and dear to my heart,” Ramesh said. “I plan on being here for a while.”

After initial successful growth, Misfits moved its first warehouse from Germantown Avenue in Philly to New Jersey to expand its ability to serve more customers.

“Philly is an urban city, and though there are warehouses up in North Philly and in parts of West Philly, they’re not really built or designed for kind of a large-scale industrial use that we needed,” Ramesh said.

The company employs a fleet of trucks that need to be able to come in and out of the fulfillment center easily.

“That type of space, I think is just really hard to find in the city.”

Last year, when Misfits bought Imperfect Foods, the company shifted its focus to working with smaller local fulfillment centers, which resulted in facility closures and layoffs. Since the acquisition, a third of Misfits’ workforce has been let go. The company did not disclose how many employees this represents.

Ramesh said he did not anticipate any further companywide reductions or layoffs in the near future.

“My view is that that is now behind us,” said Ramesh.

The company currently has over 1,500 employees and is looking to hire for 60 job openings, according to its website.

In the early days of the company, Ramesh sought out locals in Philadelphia to hire. He said it’s still important to the company to hire locally, but now that means hiring people in Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles, Portland, and San Antonio.

The company saw growth during the pandemic as many people opted to get their groceries delivered. With the height of the pandemic behind us, though, customers continue to shop from them because of their competitive prices, said Ramesh — especially as inflation has made some supermarket staples more expensive.

“We’re a good deal for our customers,” Ramesh said.