Cloud kitchens: Cheap as chips but no cakewalk

India’s cloud kitchen market is replete with deals, acquisitions, and eye-popping funding. But how do delivery-only kitchens really function, and what’s it like to run one? We bring you a ringside view

Swiggy, through its Access model, wants to scale from 100+ to 300 partner restaurants by June 2019. How so? By setting up cloud kitchens in high-demand, low-supply areas across metros and Tier-II cities as well

Other players like Freshmenu, Rebel Foods, and Zomato have distinct approaches to delivery-only kitchens. This extends to their physical spaces, target geographies, and the staff in their employ

The market is especially cutthroat for smaller, independent cloud kitchens that rely on aggregators and have to contend with steep commissions and unmanageable order volumes triggered by discounts

Food cost management and menu innovation could be key differentiators in an environment where food prepared in cloud kitchens is becoming increasingly functional, 'convenient', and template

On the first floor of the mall sit six kitchens that symbolise tectonic shifts in India’s hospitality industry.

Tucked in a lane off Whitefield Main Road, Bengaluru, the mall, HVP Aster’s entrance is dotted by mounds of cement and stone slabs. But walk to the first level, and the palette of construction grey gives way to industrial metal: it’s this 2700 sq ft space, shared between Grow Fit, Zippy, Frozen Bottle, Sharief Bhai, Yumlane, and Rice Bowl, that satiates rumbling stomachs within a four-kilometre radius.

The co-working kitchen space, a ‘pod’, is one of 12 Swiggy Access points in Bengaluru.

AUTHOR

Roshni Nair

Roshni P. Nair joins us from Reuters, where she was an online producer. With a background in weekend features at Hindustan Times and DNA, Roshni has written on subjects ranging from India’s amateur UFO investigators to the provenance of sambhar. When not pursuing story ideas, she enjoys reading, making a great cuppa adrak chai, playing with street dogs, and avoiding large gatherings. Roshni will work out of Mumbai and can be reached at roshni at the rate the-ken.com

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