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It\u2019s a story that Matt Hagel likes to share as he networks with fellow finance executives and accounting types. Back in 2017\u2014only days after stepping into a finance leadership role at the online prepared meals company Freshly\u2014Hagel was reviewing the company\u2019s chart of accounts when he asked himself: \u201cWhy is Plant, Property, and Equipment (PPE) under Operating Expenses?\u201d As he soon learned, this stalwart accounting acronym has long led a double life and is also used by various industries (notably healthcare and food prep) as a shorthand designation for Personal Protective Equipment.

Three years later, the protective gear acronym is widely known from coast to coast\u2014just like Freshly. In fact, since its PPE entry first drew Hagel\u2019s consternation, Freshly has opened an East Coast kitchen and distribution center, an expansion that extended the firm\u2019s geographic reach from 28 to 48 states and propelled its sales to nearly 10 times their early 2017 volumes.

\u201cI inherited a finance and accounting team of three, and now I have a team of 30,\u201d comments Hagel, who located many of his new finance and accounting hires at the company\u2019s three distribution centers, the newest of which opened in Arizona this past April.

\u201cFrom a cost accounting perspective, we have feet on the ground, so if any issues arise, our folks can quickly step onto the plant floor and determine the correct inventory number or provide whatever other information is needed,\u201d says Hagel, who entered 2020 keen to sharpen his team\u2019s focus on costs after years of marshaling resources and new plant capacity to accommodate growth.

Then COVID arrived. There\u2019s little doubt that the pandemic has been an accelerant on the trend of consumers turning to online for shopping experiences like Freshly that promise safety as well as convenience. (Such was the case for online car seller Vroom, which after record sales in March and April moved quickly to go public in June.)

It\u2019s enough to make you wonder whether Freshly management may be of a similar frame of mind.

Reports Hagel: "Freshly is focused on building the best company possible, one that will be ready for the public markets or remain\xa0as a successful private company."\xa0

Perhaps momentarily escaping Hagel\u2019s lines of sight is yet another option whereby Freshly is acquired by a giant inside the packaged goods space. Certainly, Hagel doesn\u2019t have to look far when you consider that Nestl\xe9 is one of Freshly\u2019s largest investors.

To be sure, Nestl\xe9\u2019s move to acquire a minority interest in Freshly back in 2017 was somewhat out of character for the food giant that is generally known to swallow its quarry whole. At that time, Nestle was the lead investor in a $77 million round of funding.

Just as the pandemic has accelerated the shift to online buying, so too has it appeared to draw Freshly and its big name investor ever more close.

\u201cThis has been open-office at both ends. We have had a really good dialog that has helped us both to be successful,\u201d comments Hagel.

Back in March, Freshly engaged with Nestl\xe9\u2019s human resources team as it formulated its COVID response, which Hagel credits with having helped Freshly to avoid the mistakes made by other food industry players.

For one thing, Freshly hired a number of health professionals to begin taking employee temperatures at every shift across its different locations.

\u201cThe words \u2018essential services\u2019 weren\u2019t even a term on March 9, and there was no way of knowing whether we would be shut down,\u201d explains Hagel, who says that in the event of a state \u201clockdown,\u201d Freshly has prepared printed laminated forms for each employee to use that would confirm their employment at Freshly.

As the pandemic bore down on different U.S. geographies, Freshly issued a press release announcing that Freshly and Nestle would jointly be donating $500,000 to Meals on Wheels America.

\u201cWhat happened back in March was that...