If You Only Knew the Power of the Dark Kitchen!
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The last few years have seen an evolution of the way customers access restaurant services. Thanks to our increasingly connected lifestyles, more and more people are engaging with their favorite food brands online.
Gone are the days when people would argue about who was going to make the dreaded call to their local takeout. Today, people can order their favorite cuisine with a few taps of their thumbs thanks to many restaurants having proprietary apps. For those that don't, the proliferation of third-party food delivery facilitators such as Deliveroo and UberEats are bridging the gap.
According to a study by US Foods, the average consumer has two food delivery apps and uses them three times each month. More than half of consumers (54%) who use food delivery apps start their experience with a restaurant in mind, but instead of picking up the phone, they turn to their app to look for the restaurant. The remaining 46% open up their app to look for ideas. Forbes also reports that the online food delivery industry will be worth more than $200 billion by 2025, up from an estimated $82 billion in 2018.
Not only have these methods of engagement changed the way we order food, but they've also given rise to a new kind of food provider — the dark kitchen.
Dark Kitchens
The term "dark kitchen" refers to those restaurants which have chosen to forgo the traditional restaurant/takeout model and have no customer-facing location. This means there is no way for a customer to walk into their business to order food, either to eat it on the premises or take it home with them.
Instead, these dark kitchens operate purely to serve an online market. This is why they're known as dark kitchens — often operating out of industrial units and other out-of-the-way places. There are many business advantages to this model. Because they don't need to provide seating, tables, or customer waiting areas, overhead costs are significantly reduced compared to a traditional restaurant or takeout. Dark kitchens can be far more agile than their customer-facing counterparts and experiment with new menus and food trends without having to rebrand a physical location. If the trend doesn't work out, it's just as simple for them to move onto something else.
Dark kitchens are particularly popular with younger customers. These demographics are more naturally drawn to technology-based experiences and also more likely to experiment with new food trends and world cuisines.
"Born between 1981 and 2001, millennials are the consumers that drive the market in almost every sector, including the food industry," states Deliverect. "Millennials grew up around and with technology and the convenience of applications. For them, waiting is not an option as they are used to overnight shipping, instant online payments, and worldwide communication at all times of the day. The food, beverage and restaurant industry needed to reinvent itself to serve millennials and comply with their demands. This is where dark kitchens fill in the gap."
Not Just for Startups
It might be easier to think that dark kitchens are simply the province of hip and trendy startups — serving hot trends such as Korean BBQ or vegan food items. However, this would be an erroneous assumption as even some big brands are starting to embrace the concept.
When it comes to fast food providers, few brands spring to mind more readily than the golden arches of McDonald's. For decades, the burger chain has been serving customers it's quick and simple range of sandwiches and sides from physical restaurants and via its drive-through windows. Now, in the UK, the famous chain has recently embraced the dark kitchen concept.
Starting out in Hounslow in the nation's capital, London, McDonald's has just opened its first off-premises kitchen created to solely serve online customers. McDonald's has been partnering with UberEats to facilitate home delivery for some time now, but this move represents the brand's first foray into the dark kitchen space.
"The kitchen will be used to prepare food to meet the growing appetite for McDonald's deliveries direct to customers via apps such as UberEats," said a McDonald's spokesperson. "The kitchen looks and feels exactly the same as all our other kitchens up and down the country and will deliver the same great-tasting food our customers expect. It will adhere to exactly the same standards of food quality. The move is part of a wider trial to test different restaurant formats."
Final Thoughts
Dark kitchens provide a great and affordable option for restaurant startups to serve an online customer base and give them the freedom to experiment with different trends and strategies. With even massive brands such as McDonald's now embracing the concept, we can expect to see a lot more from the dark kitchen format through 2020 and beyond.
Dark kitchens are set to be a hot topic at Future Restaurants 2020, taking place in August at the Hilton Austin, TX.
Download the agenda today for more information and insights.
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