Did you know that cloud kitchens are on the rise, especially since the inception of COVID? The concept is so unique, due largely in part to its affiliation with food delivery and virtual kitchens. 

Today, we’re going to be taking a look at the incentives of cloud kitchens and why they have been a force multiplier for companies like Sweetheart Kitchen who utilize ghost kitchens in Dubai.

Understanding The Cloud Kitchen Model

Food entrepreneurs are constantly looking for commercial kitchen space to start their own spaces in the virtual kitchen market and shared kitchens within this area are adhering to the demand by offering additional services to ensure that ghost kitchens in Dubai are successful. 

The mission of Sweetheart Kitchen is to cater to the needs of the community and continue to facilitate through supply and demand while simultaneously running the shared kitchen and virtual kitchen spaces with others more efficiently by providing them with the tools and resources to be successful.

How Cloud Kitchens Work

Cloud kitchens are licensed commercial food production facilities where anywhere from one or two to dozens of restaurants rent space to put together menu items that are sufficient for delivery.

One restaurant can be in control of several brands, or virtual restaurants, all working in one facility, or the kitchen can run very strategically in a way that is conducive to maintaining a steady workflow.

Think of a large warehouse with various stations (mini-restaurants) of stainless steel prep tables, hood vents, stoves, ovens, and sinks, each station has its own method of getting orders for the customers. 

Cloud kitchen menu items are designed for streamlining the production and delivery process. They are mostly located in industrial complexes, cloud kitchens can provide driver parking, waiting areas for drivers (and with screens that check on order times) and check-in stations for an easy driver pick-up. 

All designed to get food out your door and to your customers in a quick and timely manner.

Cloud kitchens are very tech-friendly. Smartphone apps, such as Talabat, Zomato, and Careem, work closely in conjunction with the cloud kitchen concept. By doing this, they use large amounts of data to determine what types of foods are suitable for certain areas, devising strategies to efficiently facilitate the growing demand. 

For instance, hot wings tend to be really popular between 11pm-2am on college campuses. The data is accurate and is prompting the business to make the necessary changes.

As the technology has become more and more innovative, additional services have emerged to meet the demands of various delivery apps into a singular system. 

For easier production of multiple orders and delivery coordination and ideal food purchases and production software for decreased food waste and an increase per meal in economics. 

This is just the tip of the iceberg for this industry, and Sweetheart Kitchen tapped into something real early. 

Business Models for Cloud Kitchens

There are distinct approaches to overseeing the production of a ghost kitchen in Dubai, ranging from adding an opportunistic delivery-only brand or building on a foundation that already exists within one restaurant. All the way to running a commissary kitchen which is home to multiple brands.

Adding A Delivery Element To Your Brand

Restaurants that have had much of their business go online, with delivery apps on the rise, these businesses are taking advantage of their existing kitchens by utilizing brands that only function on a delivery basis.

This approach allows them to get the most bang for their buck with their current staff, storage, ingredients and kitchen space are also maximized for the best return in profits. In certain scenarios, you can pick up the food from their locations.

The delivery-only menu items could be similar to what ordinary restaurants have on their menus, or the concepts could be different altogether. 

An Italian restaurant, as an example, might offer a delivery-only pizza brand from one kitchen, or it could diversify and offer other items for takeout or delivery.

Running Your Virtual Kitchen

It’s no secret that running a ghost kitchen is different than overseeing the production of a regular restaurant.

When the consumer-facing side of a kitchen is running in the cloud (ie. when it doesn’t have any physical storefront, food truck, pick-up area), it is a true cloud kitchen. Dedicated cloud kitchens are able to solve some of the pain points by targeting all of these different brands, based on the demands of their consumers. 

Each of these brands are known as virtual eateries and one business model is to run a delivery-only kitchen which has one or multiples of these concepts. 

The virtual concepts look independent to consumers that are making food orders, but in reality, the food production is happening discreetly in a warehouse or food factory in conjunction with other kinds of virtual restaurants.

To run a virtual restaurant, it’s necessary to have a license, commercial kitchen space to rent during times of operation, accessibility on a delivery app, and coordinated labor, delivery supplies, and ordering of ingredients. 

A cloud kitchen like Sweetheart’s, is able to deliver on all fronts to accommodate its growing clientele.

Another way to turn a profit from the boom in food delivery is to use cloud kitchens as its own business. While businesses like Sweetheart Kitchen run a private label multi brand operation, there are other concepts that are renting kitchens to many third-party businesses, acting like a coworking space and place of work for food producers. 

This model involves acting more like a landlord rather than being the one in a food producer role. However, it’s in your best interest to become more hands on in working to promote and provide services for the brands that use your kitchen space in order to be successful.