When the Covid-19 pandemic was wreaking havoc across the world and resulting in closure of many a business due to the lockdown, the food delivery industry saw an unprecedented boom. In this despondency, some entrepreneurs in Pakistan saw an opportunity to introduce to the country the revolutionary concept of cloud kitchens that was already popular worldwide.

Unlike a brick-and-mortar restaurant that did not see itself returning to the pre-pandemic experience any time soon, these virtual, ghost or shared kitchens, as they’re called, are one or multiple commercial kitchens under one roof that could be rented out or run by the owner themselves.

A recent entrant to Lahore’s cloud kitchen market, Kitchual – virtual kitchen, offering three food brands so far, was launched in March by Mahwish Malik, Sihaam Khan and Maaz Alvi, each with a diverse background. Utilising her vast experience in the food business and having successfully run a restaurant, Malik says the cloud kitchen model is based on a limited menu, offering food that’s easily produced, purpose-built for delivery only and retaining quality upon delivery.

“We have separate biryani, fried chicken and wings brands, and plan to launch two more by the year end. This concept is completely data-driven; data helps us decide the kind of food brand to launch. For example, from our research we found that biryani was the most popular item in online delivery in the country, so we launched it first. Wings were our third brand as we realised there wasn’t a dedicated brand offering the dish in Lahore despite its popularity in Islamabad and Karachi. We had to really research what food to offer in prime quality to a customer sitting 40 minutes away from us (the time it takes to deliver). The longevity and sustainable quality are prime factors.”

While there are quite a few cloud kitchens across the country, one of the earliest in Lahore and one that seems to have got the idea correct, Byte, was launched last year based on pretty much the same model as Kitchual. But Byte’s focus appears to be on low price and bigger sales volume instead of quality and building a competitive brand.

Data also helps such businesses decide about expansion to the areas that may not be covered yet, eg what kind of food is being ordered the most from which area.

“Based on this data we can open up more kitchens in multiple locations because right now we have to give up 20 to 25 per cent of our orders as they don’t meet our delivery radius,” Malik explains.

Compared to a customer-facing physical restaurant, this model is completely virtual. It provides its own benefits such as affordable start-up cost, low overheads and maintenance, avoiding property taxes, utility bills, staff salaries and utilization of the same team for multiple brands.

Another major advantage of a cloud kitchen is the liberty to change the menu at will or launch of a brand just for a season (something like fried fish in winters and salads in summers) and even shutting one down if you see it’s not working out, all of this without much impact on customer satisfaction. This also helps avoid food wastage through cross-utilisation of resources.

“Whereas physical restaurants operate on one concept that you can’t change and if it doesn’t work, you end up closing it down. In a cloud kitchen, if a brand doesn’t work you can easily shut it down and in a matter of days launch a new one. To avoid wastage and pilferage, we work on cross-utilisation of resources. And if the (co)owner knows the food business, they can even develop recipes/products themselves, making it a win-win situation,” Malik explains.

Her business partner, Alvi, chips in that the success of a cloud kitchen primarily depends on the cuisine it offers and within that the food on the menu.

“Technology also plays a very important part and then marketing is a key component because there’s no customer-facing storefront to promote yourself.”

Despite all these benefits, this model has its own drawbacks with high dependence on technology proving to be a double-edged sword – where it helps the brands reach a larger audience through delivery apps and social media, Malik says, “being strictly virtual makes you work extra and put in 110pc on marketing. Late delivery is also a common issue no matter how quickly you prepare the food”.

Alvi adds in that trying to create your place digitally in a significant way and then moving to other locations are also challenges one could face. Since these virtual kitchens rely primarily on marketing, brand growth is slow, but Malik says they prefer it this way as the growth is organic and eventually rewarding.

This concept, no matter how slow the acceptability, appears to be the future of food business and the pandemic-associated restrictions just brought that reality to the fore. The restaurants struggling to sustain could explore this option and it won’t even damage their pockets much.

Published in Dawn, July 25th, 2021