CloudKitchens™ are the newest and hottest trend in the F&B world. They offer food delivery businesses the chance to modernise how they serve customers and reap the benefits of the booming food delivery world. It’s a low risk, high reward solution to the downturn in dine-in orders, and allows you to pivot your restaurant business into a new era of dining. But, not all CloudKitchens™ spaces are the same – and they certainly aren’t a one-size-fits-all solution.
The CloudKitchens™ concept is best thought of as the building blocks of a new and streamlined kitchen. By definition, they are kitchen spaces that typically have no dine-in space at all for customers – and rarely offer takeaway services. The majority of what CloudKitchens™ do is fulfil delivery orders together with third-party delivery companies like Foodpanda and Deliveroo. In doing so, they can operate in cheaper areas away nearer to residential areas, work with much smaller and efficient teams, and prioritise cooking food in the most convenient, cost-effective, and professional way possible without sacrificing quality.
CloudKitchens™ operators like Freshlane offer a variety of ready-to-go kitchen spaces that come with new and innovative technology, growth support, and much more. The following are some of the main types of businesses that we’ve designed our spaces to work for.
- Local entrepreneur / startup
- Home based-cooking / baking
- National chains
- Regional and international chains
- Drinks / dessert brands
- KIV (keep in view) kitchen
1. Local entrepreneur / startup
For small, local businesses and startups, our CloudKitchens™ spaces can be the ideal solution. Moving into a location with lower upfront and operational costs allows them to experiment and start testing different strategies with much lower risk and at a faster rate. These kinds of brands can get started in a CloudKitchens™ space for as little as HK$150k, a small figure compared to the HK$1.5m of many dine-in restaurants. On top of this, they can easily scale up – and down – by just talking to us and taking advantage of our short-term leases.
2. Home based-cooking / baking
Certain home-based cooking and baking brands can make great use of our CloudKitchens™ spaces, but in a different way. Home-based food businesses have a slew of food safety regulations they must adhere to, even more so after COVID-19. Besides needing contactless delivery, cashless payment and collection only by appointment, home-based food business owners can’t load or unload goods via a delivery vehicle, and can’t recruit paid staff, among other challenges.
The benefits of CloudKitchens™ for this category of businesses are that our spaces offer to streamline processes and serve as a launchpad for home-based businesses to transition into a full-fledged F&B business. This is a huge help to brands looking to get a start without having to figure out all of the logistics on their own.
For these kinds of businesses, our CloudKitchens™ offer a way to streamline processes and act as a stepping stone into a fully-fledged F&B business.
3. National chains
For national chains, CloudKitchens™ spaces promise a more affordable route to expansion. These types of businesses may have one or a few locations already, but can’t quite justify the upfront costs needed to expand into new neighbourhoods and areas in Hong Kong that they’re not sure will be beneficial to them. With CloudKitchens™, they can expand into all these new neighbourhoods and target more suburban locations filled with hungry customers – all without too much risk.
4. Regional and international chains
The benefit of CloudKitchens™ also extends to regional and international chains. These types of food businesses benefit from CloudKitchens™ in that they provide a means for entering a new market at a significantly lower cost. CloudKitchens™ spaces offer them a way to enter a new market, run a food delivery business with advanced technology, streamlined processes, and more.
5. Drinks/ dessert brands
Cold and dessert brands are another type of business that uses CloudKitchens™ in yet another way. At Freshlane, we welcome them to use our kitchen spaces primarily as a storage location and a way to gain access to a bigger market. In doing so, they can pay lower rates and grow their virtual brand as they sell to more residential markets for food delivery.
6. KIV kitchen
CloudKitchens™ can also be used as primarily a storage location for your food. These KIV (keep in view) type kitchens benefit from all the storage equipment we have pre-fitted in our spaces. When needed, these ingredients or dishes can be transported at a moment’s notice, while our team will handle all the upkeep work like cleaning, insurance, and more.
Your own CloudKitchens™
Now that you’ve seen how CloudKitchens™ can accommodate F&B businesses of various sizes and types of food, are you interested in setting up your own CloudKitchens™ space in Hong Kong? Get in touch with our team today by filling in the form in below!