Zomato takes aim at cloud kitchens that operate numerous brands
Zomato has stated that it will manually check the whereabouts of these kitchens if more than ten brands run out of a single location.
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Food aggregator Zomato stated on September 22 that it will spot-check the site of such kitchens if more than 10 companies are operating out of a single location and will also build a "whitelist" of the restaurant partners that "offer a fantastic experience."
The crackdown on cloud kitchens by the Gurugram-based company comes after a blog post showed that a cloud kitchen in Bengaluru was hosting nearly 200 distinct companies.
Cloud kitchens don't offer a dine-in option and solely make food for delivery.
According to some accounts, the proprietor of the cloud-kitchen received a notice from the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) last week telling him to follow the rules.
The National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) and other eateries were being contacted by Zomato, the company claimed in a blog post, to stop these practises.
Even though FSSAI permits a cloud kitchen to manage many brands, few people abuse it, the article continued.
As an example, some fly-by-night operators, who make up fewer than 0.2% of registered kitchens, abuse the law's latitude by launching countless brands from a single kitchen. These firms offer products with little to no differentiation; instead, they deceive/confuse customers by giving them the impression that there are options when there aren't any, the report said.
According to the article, these kitchens typically receive negative evaluations and ratings.
On our site, the majority of the brands that these operators operate likewise receive poor reviews and ratings. Such operators damage the reputation of the restaurant business as a whole, which is detrimental to all of us, the post stated.
Even the most organised outlets in the industry, according to the blog post, "don't perceive operational benefits and customer trust in operating too many brands from a single kitchen," even if there is no exact science to the ideal number of brands.
In order to prevent delays for restaurant partners who offer a wonderful experience in addition to the operators stated above, it was added that "we will whitelist" them from this human inspection.
Cloud kitchens frequently manage many brands. For instance, Faasos, Behrouz Biryani, Oven Story Pizza, Lunch Box, Mandarin Oak, The Good Bowl, SLAY Coffee, Sweet Truth, and Wendy's are just a few of the brands that are produced by Rebel Foods, a unicorn company that was created last year. According to experts, it aids in multiple positioning and additional earnings.
Due to the closure of dinning-in restaurants during the pandemic, the cloud kitchen industry experienced a rise. The market is anticipated to grow from $400 million in 2019 to close to $3 billion by 2025, according to market research firm RedSeer.
