The cloud kitchens industry is getting a boost from a new partnership between Grab Philippines and Kraver’s Canteen.
Grab Philippines, the leading everyday superapp, is collaborating with cloud-kitchen operator Kraver’s Canteen to set up GrabKitchen facilities to help restaurants and brands reach new consumers and maximize operations while lowering overhead expenses.
GrabKitchens allow brands and restaurants to open up delivery-only kitchen facilities within a central facility, with shared manpower. This allows brands to fulfill orders without having to spend capital on setting up physical storefronts and paying wait staff, enabling restaurant owners to focus on developing new menu items to delight their consumers.
What sets GrabKitchen apart is that consumers can easily mix and match their orders across different brands and restaurants located within the same GrabKitchen site and have them delivered while paying a single delivery
fee.
Through the partnership, Grab Philippines and Kraver’s Canteen will collaborate to manage key areas of the venture:
Grab will lead all the digital and customer-facing aspects of the partnership, utilizing data to identify opportunities in each market and the Grab superapp to drive marketing, while Kraver’s manages the physical and kitchen-facing aspects.
The recently launched GrabKitchen branch in Paranaque is the first facility built through this partnership.
Kraver’s Canteen Co-Founder Victor Lim said “Partnering with Grab was a no-brainer for us– our interests are very much aligned and the opportunities for synergy are clear for everyone to see. We are fully confident that this partnership will continue to create win-win-win-win value, for Grab, Kraver’s, merchants, and customers alike, and are excited to bring even more brands to Grab in the south.”
GrabKitchen Philippines Project Lead Josephine Kamiyama said “We believe that cloud kitchens help brands and restaurants better reach and serve their consumers while easing the financial pain points of setting up and running physical storefronts. The strategic alliance between Grab Philippines and Kraver’s Canteen is quite timely as we find ways to better serve
communities.”
“Furthermore, the new normal encourages consumers to look for and discover more convenient ways of ordering the food they like. The mix and match feature of GrabKitchen allows consumers to enjoy food from different brands, at the same time,” said Kamiyama, adding that Grab is continuously exploring opportunities to build additional GrabKitchen facilities to be able to invite more merchants in the future.
Helping restaurants, food brands, and MSMEs survive and thrive
Since its introduction to the Philippines in 2020, GrabKitchen has helped many of its merchant partners survive and thrive amidst the challenges brought about by the pandemic.
Crowd favorite Frankie’s New York Buffalo Wings is one of the many brands that were able to keep business going during the pandemic thanks to its partnership with GrabKitchen.
“Through GrabKitchen’s cloud kitchen concept, business owners can save on lower labor costs, rent, and construction, which then helps businesses like us to invest and focus more on continuously serving our customers with quality food,” says Ed Firmalo, President of Frankie’s New York Buffalo Wings. Filipino restaurant Dapo at Tisa likewise saw its orders grow substantially after being part of the platform.
Managing Partner Vincent De Castro revealed that Dapo saw an increase in demand from deliveries, which eventually made up at least 80% of revenue. This helped the team realize the value and importance of having a delivery partner such as GrabFood during these trying times.
Viva International Foods and Restaurants Senior Vice President Vicente Raphael S. Del Rosario IV shared that being part of GrabKitchen has helped their brands such as Yogorino, Pepi Cubano, and Paper Moon reach more consumers outside their physical stores.
“Thanks to GrabKitchen, we are able to expand our presence and increase our visibility beyond our brick and mortar stores. Having this exposure helped increase our orders and we are glad to have partnered with GrabKitchen,” said Del Rosario.
When in-store dining was limited due to lockdowns and movement restrictions, a lot of food-based businesses turned to social media to widen their consumer base including the popular Happilee Korean Kitchen.
However, after orders did not increase as much as expected, the brand explored other possibilities such as joining GrabKitchen.
Within weeks of joining GrabKitchen, Happilee’s online orders tripled allowing the brand to open more stores including branches in GrabKitchen Sampaloc and Malate.
“With strong determination and the strategic intervention strategy of Grab, I can say that our economic gains from the online food service are very impressive. It is very evident from our gross sales that the technology-based innovation introduced by GrabFood through GrabKitchen paved
the way for the smooth economic recovery of our business,“ Happilee Founder Jona Lee shared.
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