Grab – Southeast Asia’s leading multi-service super app – recently launched a central kitchen, GrabKitchen, in Ho Chi Minh City after weeks of trialing the model.(Photo: Grab)
HCM City (VNS/VNA) —The increasing demand for food delivery applications has helped spread thetrend of central kitchens from China, India, Japan and Indonesia to Vietnam.
Grab – Southeast Asia’s leading multi-servicesuper app – recently launched a central kitchen, GrabKitchen, in Ho Chi Minh City after weeks of trialing the model.
The kitchen is located in Thu DucDistrict. The company calls this model “cloud kitchen”.
The kitchen features 12 popular restaurants on theGrabFood platform.
Each one has a separate kitchen, equipped with basicutilities. Processing equipment is installed by the restaurants. Grab does notcharge a lease for the space, it only charges for electricity, water and acommission.
“Vietnam is the second country where Grab has opened aGrabKitchen model. In the Indonesian market, within a short span of six months,we expanded to more than 10 GrabKitchens across the nation as of September.We aim to launch more than 50 GrabKitchens by the end of thisyear, the largest regional network of cloud kitchens in Southeast Asia,”said Jerry Lim, Country Head of Grab in Vietnam.
In Vietnam, the concept of GrabKitchen could alsoachieve considerable growth, he added.
He also said that the company would set up morekitchens in the city this year andexpand to Hanoi and Da Nang next year.
Grab’s central kitchen is a place for popularrestaurants on GrabFood. The platform is to exploit places with high demand.This is a way to satisfy customers, while maximising the revenue potential forthe restaurants.
Based on analytical data, Thu Duc districtis a place of great demand because of its young demographic and high populationof students and workers. However, many of their favourite restaurants were faraway, said Lim.
Lam Thanh,owner of Tiem An Cho Lonrestaurant, told the online newspaper VnExpress that having a branch in the 'centralkitchen', he did not need to pay attention to space, infrastructure andmanagement, just focus on process.
GrabFood said that the platform's total transactionvalue increased by 400 percent in the first half of this year, with the averagenumber of daily processed orders hitting 300,000.
A recent report by Google, Temasek and Bain &Company commented that Grab and Go-Jek were leading the way in distributingonline food in Southeast Asia.
Ride-hailing has more than quadrupled in value from 3billion USD in 2015 to almost 13 billion USD in2019. As it stands, the sector’s 2025 potential exceeds 40 billion USD,up from 29 billion USD predicted previously, as a result of the booming fooddelivery sector, according to the report.
By sparing consumers the inconvenience of humidweather and traffic jams, food delivery has become particularly popular inmetro areas.
After Lala left the market, GrabFood's rivals are Nowand Go-Viet's GoFood, with non-stop promotional activities.
A newer but common name in some HCM City districts isBaemin of South Korean start-up Woowa Brothers.
In the near future, at least two platforms haveconfirmed their participation in the food delivery war, including beFood andVato.
The use of promo codes and ubiquitous marketingcampaigns certainly played a key role in convincing users to try out suchservices. But increasingly, the wide variety of cuisine options available,including affordable meals from food court and street food stalls, the enticinguser interfaces and speedy deliveries have become the determining factorsbehind recurring usage, according to the report./.
VNA
