Kouzina, a cloud kitchen company, plans to grow to 150 total kitchens in 12 to 18 months. The company will continue to expand in metros where it already has a strong presence, such as Pune and Hyderabad while doubling focus on tier-2 cities.
From a network of cloud kitchens across India, Kouzina owns and manages various delivery-led food companies powered by technology. Warm Oven, Indiana Burgers, and Kaati Zone are some of the company’s brands. The brands are present in over 15 cities and operate over 60 kitchens.
Bengaluru is the largest city in terms of generating revenue for the company. “That said, it is our oldest city and also the city with the highest density of kitchens. Other cities are relatively new and will start to ramp up over the next six to 12 months,” Gautam Balijepalli, co-founder and CEO at Kouzina Food Tech Pvt Ltd, informed.
Food delivery has expanded beyond tier-1 cities in two to three years. “Our understanding is that non-metro towns are increasingly becoming important for the food delivery ecosystem and this is evident from some of the publicly announced plans of the aggregators Most of these markets are supply starved with the lack of good quality restaurant brands and we plan to expand beyond metros to capture this opportunity,” he further added.
The average order value for all brands is currently approximately INR 375. However, given that the company manages one of the leading online cake brands, WarmOven, according to Balijepalli, the number will only rise as the brand expands nationally.
According to him, there is a lot of data available in today’s digital-first restaurant industry, but obtaining vital insights from it is crucial. Commenting on the same, he added, “Our platform aggregates various data points (customer ratings, comments, preparation times, product mix for each brand etc) across our kitchen network to make improvements every single day. By leveraging all of this data in its operational processes, we are creating a strong culture of continuous improvement, which would set it apart from its competitors over time.”
Kouzina strives to introduce new brands in the two most popular online categories, biryani, and pizza.
