In the movie ‘Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs,’ the director Cody Cameron reportedly grew the vegetables, made sculptures, and then took photographs to get the real idea of fruits and vegetables. Interestingly enough, the very idea of a cloud kitchen has some similarities with this very movie. I mean, who would mind their own personalized cloud that helps them get their favorite food, right?
Cloud Kitchen is reshaping the global food tech industry as we know it.
Why are we talking about it? Because it is going to be an industry worth $70million by the year 2022. That’s huge, to say the least. With the latest advanced technology, everything is being automated and optimized. The restaurant industry is also undergoing a transformation. If you ever wanted to venture into opening your own restaurant, well this is your chance. A chance to take a dig into the concept of cloud kitchen.
Aren’t you excited to find out? Let’s go!
What is a Cloud Kitchen Business Model?
The very concept of ‘cloud kitchen’ is also known as ghost kitchens, virtual kitchens, delivery-only restaurants, and even dark kitchen( now that’s intriguing). This is taking the dystopian world to another new level. There are different names attached to it because the cloud kitchen is basically a centralized kitchen that has no physical storefront. They are using third-party apps to take orders and deliver food directly to the customer.
With cloud kitchen, you have the leverage to lower the risk of losing your investment and efforts. You have a huge chance to attain ROI and increase it by using the cloud kitchen model.
In this way, you can start and run your cloud kitchen right away without waiting for any complex processes or without needing any extra investments. Start right from a kitchen with help of technology or aggregator apps such as uber eats. Now or never?
It’s just a simple use of technology that enables you to go digital and put everything on the cloud, and in this way, it’s really true. Everything is managed, even customer handling, order taking, and delivery. You just have to focus on food quality.
However, this can be different as cloud kitchen business models can differ in their work.
Now, you see the very purpose of cloud kitchen is to optimize delivery and automate the whole process. But if one wants to go for this idea, they can see the models.
How does the Cloud Kitchen Business Model work?
The question pops up in one’s mind is that, how are these cloud kitchen business models working? Well, let’s find out.
There are few popular business models that have been tested and tried such as:
Hub and Spoke Model – In this very model, usually what happens is that half-cooked or semi-cooked food reaches a different destination, where it is served or delivered. In this case, there is one centralized kitchen to prepare food.
Pod Model – In this case, the food is prepared in moveable trucks that can be parked at any particular spot or a popular spot. This gives you the leverage to reach customers anywhere you want and also deliver food, in case you have signed up with a third-party aggregator app.
Aggregator Kitchens- A centralized kitchen, where the kitchen is used as a service termed as KaaS. In this case, several restaurants can share the same place and utilities to run their business, however, the place is managed and owned by a third party.
Outsourced Kitchen– Not so popular model, where everything is outsourced including the food prep, food delivery, and customer handling. In this case, the recipe for the food is shared, and the main chef can make the final changes.
Independent Kitchen – This is considered comparatively successful and a very popular model when it comes to cloud kitchen. Because there is no physical storefront presence. But they are present digitally, so everything is managed with food apps for delivery.
Know the advantages of Cloud Kitchen Business Model
With different benefits that come with the cloud kitchen business model, we have the leverage to make the most of this opportunity since everything is going virtual and remote.
Here are some of the top advantages, that come with this such as:
- Overhead cost is reduced concerning investment.
- Staff is not needed, even one person would be enough.
- No location-bound scenario, and no extra logistic costs.
- Leave the customer handling to a third party.
- No paperwork, simply sign a contract and get started!
- Get rid of manual labor and extra staff, automate, and optimize.
Run your own Cloud Kitchen
With so many benefits, cloud kitchen is said to be a very smart move towards this viable business model. However, some people are of the view that cloud kitchen would not be able to completely replace traditional restaurants. But with the rise of smart restaurants that are said to be changing the food industry with AI, IoT devices, data empowered automation, and what not?
You can even build an app of your own for ‘only delivery cloud kitchen business model.’ Because with the changing trends, dining out is becoming quite outdated.
Do you have an amazing idea? Transform it into the product of your dreams!
