Total revenue of $98.4m declined by 6.7 per cent (from $105m) year-on-year due to 2020 lockdown spike, the company reported.
"These results mark the halfway point of our first full year as a publicly listed company and demonstrate clear progress, and the achievement of some important milestones, as we grow within New Zealand's $37 billion retail food sector," Carter said.
"While demand remained solid through the half year period, total deliveries of 808k and an average order value of $121.81 were lower than the same period in FY21, owing to a spike during the 2020 nationwide lockdown in the early part of the pandemic response."
Carter said during the first half, the business grew "high-value active customers" by 3.1 per cent year-on-year and the customer retention had been at around 60 per cent of active customers through the past six months.
Commenting on the outlook, chief executive Kevin Bowler said the business continues to see opportunities for growth from its core product offering and its expansion of the My Food Bag Kitchen, and was "well-positioned" to pursue inorganic growth opportunities.
The company had also expanded its recipe choice offering to 15 meal options a week and meal choice is also now part of the Bargain Box and Fresh Start brands.
Bowler said: "Throughout the first phase of the Kitchen, we achieved attachment rates in line with internal targets of 10 per cent to 15 per cent and an average order value in excess of $20.
"We also identified significant opportunities to invest and accelerate further to establish ourselves as a source of highly valued solutions, beyond meals, for our customers."
Bowler said due to the rise in raw materials he had to increase the cost of the products by four and five per cent this year.
"We certainly had some inflationary pressure on the business in terms of ingredient prices, we did move some prices in October to offset some of those ingredient prices.
"We did that because we didn't want to comprise the quality of what we're offering ... so we passed on some of those increases [to our customers]," he said.
He said most of the food he offered is provided locally so any international shipment constraints did not affect his business.
"We probably had more challenges with weather events affecting crops than we have with international shipping," he said.
He said the most popular recipe for the company had been a wide range of curries like Vietnamese style prawn curry with lemongrass and coriander, green chicken curry, chicken tikka nana rolls with eggplant relish.
"What's been a total hit is our vegetarian recipes in Fresh Start (we now have five on offer each week), and they are often in the top three recipe ratings for Fresh Start each week," Bowler said.
In August as part of their next phase of growth strategy the company had started expanding into the broader online food and grocery market with a range of new products and recipes.
The company referred to the move-in information provided to investors ahead of its $342 million initial public offer and NZX listing in March.
Talking to the Herald in August, Bowler confirmed the company had just started moving beyond meal kits and ready-made meals as part of its strategy to expand further into the $37 billion New Zealand retail food sector.
Last month analysts had mixed views on My Food Bag following its recent market update. The company indicated that while the business remained on track to meet revenue and earnings guidance, cost pressures were an increasing issue.
Then the meal kit company said its gross revenue (net of customer credits and discounts) for the half was $98.4 million and it made 808,000 deliveries for the period. Both figures were in line with expectations.
My Food Bag shares last traded at $1.20, well below their $1.85 listing price.
