US ready-meals manufacturer FreshRealm has acquired the “operational assets” of meal-kits business Marley Spoon.

FreshRealm, which last year acquired assets from Blue Apron, another US meal-kits business, has paid $24m to take over “all of Marley Spoon's US operational and supply chain infrastructure”, a statement read.

At the same time, Marley Spoon is acquiring BistroMD, a “food as medicine” subscription service that will also join the FreshRealm platform.

FreshRealm supplies food retailers, restaurants and offers a direct-to-consumer service.

The move for Marley Spoon’s assets gives FreshRealm three more production and fulfillment facilities: one each in California, Texas and New Jersey.

Michael Lippold, FreshRealm’s founder and CEO, said the deal “marks a milestone for FreshRealm in shaping the future of the fresh meals solutions space”.

Lippold said the market was worth $900bn. He added: “We are thrilled to empower meal providers like Marley Spoon and BistroMD with what they need to deliver on scale and efficiency. Our partnership will supercharge these established brands’ ability to build innovative offerings for their customers and will lead to broader innovation in the fresh meals industry.”

US-based direct-to-consumer business Wonder Group acquired Blue Apron in November. The deal saw FreshRealm sell a stake in Blue Apron it acquired as part of their asset transaction earlier in the year.

Wonder Group was set up by entrepreneur Marc Lore and underwent a management buyout in 2021. He is chairman and CEO of the £300m ($380.8m) turnover business, which Lore described as “creating the mealtime super app, serving a broad range of occasions that feature cuisines from some of the world’s best chefs and restaurants”.