Growth Kitchen is looking to start building its presence outside London, with the goal of expanding to Reading in the coming months followed by other cities and international markets further down the line, co-founder Máté Kun tells MCA.
The satellite kitchen network currently operates 45 kitchens and is aiming to triple its estate before moving to other major cities. It partners with brands including Tortilla, Popeyes, The Athenian, and Kricket.
“Right now we’re doubling down and working with the incredible brands we have,” Kun says. “We want to get them to over 100 locations across the city and also establish non-London locations.
“We have some investors from the Middle East, so we’re also getting interest from those markets. New York might be on the radar as well, but not in the next 12 months.”
The brand is also soon to announce new partners, which include an Indian concept, a gyros concept, and a “big Mexican group,” Kun adds.
“We started out with purpose-built delivery kitchens and Covid pushed us into the future. Now we’re back to our old lives, the demand still hasn’t dropped…if anything, it’s growing, especially with sticky behaviour in younger generations.
“Costs have gone up and that created a massive opportunity of adding incremental sales. We’re essentially a free franchise without upfront costs and with existing staff and equipment.”
He reports brands have continued to look for satellite kitchens post-pandemic owing to inflationary pressures, with Growth Kitchen allowing them to scale without taking on additional costs.
“Almost like franchise partners, we began licensing brands and start getting people to take care of the cooking, not only the operations side,” Kun explains.
While licensing a concept, Growth Kitchen looks for four main requirements. A centralised operations process in terms of cooking and prep is key, along with a relatively established brand to support with infrastructure and distribution.
It also looks at the cost base to keep delivery costs low for consumers, as well as sustainability and the food offer itself.
The analytics used to determine location are fundamental to the expansion strategy, with tech to determine cuisine popularity and the areas underserved in terms of specific cuisines.
“Rather than a homogenous approach, we match the numbers and supply gaps with different brands.”
With smaller brands such as Kricket and Manifesto Pizza, Growth Kitchen works directly with founders to implement initiatives to reduce food and packaging waste.
“Brands are open to this and food waste is low across our portfolio, although we’re looking to cut down further,” Kun explains. “Less than 2% of our packaging is plastic, but we’d like to move from recyclable to reusable packaging, and even install charging stations for electric bikes in the hubs we operate.”
While pushing accessible plant-based food is a priority for the business, he notes there has been no “systematic shift” towards healthier eating, with fried chicken remaining popular and consumers continuing to order indulgent meals on weekends in particular.
