Get to Know More about the "Cloud Kitchen" Concept

In the last three years, food delivery services have become one of the fastest growing sectors. There are many success stories of MSMEs that have started a food business, supported by delivery services, which is one of the indicators. Grab and Gojek become the two companies that dominate this industry. Now the competition continues. Both are competing to bring the concept cloud kitchen or a shared kitchen to accelerate the food delivery business.

CloudKitchen, or also known as ghost kitchen or virtualkitchen, is basically a shared kitchen concept that can combine several brands in one place or kitchen. This concept, if viewed from the point of view of the delivery service manager, will be effective in improving the user experience because users can order the desired food from the nearest shared kitchen.

Meanwhile for food businesses, the concept of a shared kitchen can make it easier for them to be present in more places than opening a new branch which costs a lot of money.

a research mentioned that the market cloud kitchen globally it will reach $2,63 billion by 2026. The potential for growth is greatest in countries that have growing food delivery services markets.

In India, concept cloud kitchen works quite well and is accepted by the community. The predicted growth potential reaches 5 times in the next five years. This is also driven by pandemic conditions which force restaurants to serve purchases more safely takeaways. With cloud kitchen, there are many aspects that can ultimately be reduced, one of which is infrastructure costs.

“Because people are just ordering online, that works to our advantage because our whole cost structure is built around that. There is no shop in front of the restaurant. So from a capital and operational expenditure perspective, we are in a position to sustain and grow." light Rebel Food India Business Unit CEO Raghav Joshi.

Meanwhile in China, food delivery services too touch the numbers $62 billion in 2018. This figure is predicted to continue to grow until it doubles in 2021. One of the things that colors the food delivery service in China is the presence of Panda Selected. This Beijing-based startup is a service provider cloud kitchen with 120 locations in various major cities, such as Beijing and Shenzhen.

Cloudkitchen in Indonesia

Gojek bringing Rebel Food expertise from India to Indonesia to develop the concept cloud kitchen this. Gojek calls it the GoFood Shared Kitchen. There are also Grab (GrabKitchen) and Hangry which brings the one kitchen concept to many brands.

"To date, Dapur Bersama GoFood, which was launched in October 2019, has 27 locations and is spread across Jabodetabek, Bandung and Medan. 80 percent of business partners who benefit from Dapur Bersama are GoFood MSME partners who have been part of the GoFood ecosystem since in the past, such as Bebek Dower, Martabak Pizza Orins Express, Bakso Jawir, and others. Furthermore, referring to GoFood data in May 2020, 70% of transactions were recorded by MSMEs after joining Dapur Bersama GoFood," said the VP Corporate Affairs. Food Ecosystem Gojek Roselle Lavina.

Grab also present GrabKitchen in many cities. As of last February they already had 40 kitchen cloud kitchens spread across several cities in Indonesia. GrabFood also has features GrabKitchen "All in One" which can make it easier for customers to order many menu dishes from several restaurants at once.

A similar concept is also proposed hangry, a multi-brand restaurant developed with a digital approach. Although Hangry does not claim that they carry the concept cloud kitchen, the concept of one place with many brand very close to the concept of a shared kitchen. This startup, which is fronted by Abraham Viktor, utilizes delivery services from Gojek and Grab and other technologies that support company performance.

Last June Hangry succeeded in obtaining initial stage funding IDR 42,7 billion from Sequoia India and Alpha JWC Ventures. Currently Hangry is recorded as having dozens o throughout Jabodetabek.

"During this pandemic, growth we are still safe. Maybe it's because many people haven't started eating out yet. "From January to March the growth was 100%, while from March to June it was 30% every month," light Victor at that time.

Gojek, Grab, and Hangry is planning expansion throughout this year to encourage a more massive presence of shared kitchens. Gojek decided to stop the GoFood Festival food court service and switch to a shared kitchen concept to continue serving consumers with a delivery model.

"Gradually, through data and market demand, we are in the process of developing Dapur Bersama GoFood in other cities in Indonesia as a comprehensive solution to support the needs of culinary MSME businesses," explained Rosel.

Concern

Like other business models, models cloud kitchen or shared kitchen raises several questions, both from the customer and business owner side. For example, issues of cleanliness and quality.

There are also concerns that expansion only benefits well-known brands, which actually makes it difficult for new businesses to develop and compete. At least These two are concerns for shared kitchen businesses that run in several countries.

So far, in Indonesia, the shared kitchen concept is still an attractive option to encourage the expansion of restaurant networks which has proven to have many fans. Time will tell whether a new local restaurant network will emerge that is capable of going national along with business growth cloud kitchen in this country.