Preparing Profits In The Clouds

When it comes to food, there are numerous options, right from fine dining restaurants to quick service restaurants to fast food kiosks to street vendors. But now, there is an addition to this growing family – the cloud kitchens. And that’s a business which is expanding quite rapidly across the major metros.

- Sara Khan

While major food aggregators like Swiggy, Zomato and Ola Foodpanda have reshaped the dynamics of the restaurant delivery system, newer concepts like cloud kitchens are further revolutionising the space. Elaborating on this concept, Anurag Katriar, Executive Director and CEO, DeGustibus Hospitality, says, “There is a visible shift of consumption from dine-in to delivery at work or home. While average spend is far lesser, the frequency of consumption of nonhome food is growing rapidly.” The average spending of consumers who order food from the cloud kitchen brands hovers between Rs 200-320.

The founders of PopWonMo, another cloud kitchen franchise, Krunal Shah, Imad Patel, Rajat Ryan and Kenneth Dsouza, feel the consumption pattern is “rapidly changing due to the sudden influx of substantial discounts from food aggregators who are constantly competing for acquiring new users.” Katriar of the Indigo Burger Project, which is the QSR and cloud kitchen arm of DeGustibus Hospitality, says, “I call it the ‘3C effect.’ Consumers have multiple choices – there is the convenience of ordering using apps and the cost is also very affordable due to deep discounting being offered by the aggregators.”

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