The Digital Kitchen's Rise
We speak to Mr Danny Chambers, Founder & Managing Director of Shake Farm & The Digital Kitchen, and he tell us about The Digital Kitchen, the perks of building a virtual brand, and working together with food delivery platform Deliveroo.
CWA: To you and the team, what does it mean to build a digital brand during this time?
While Covid-19 has brought much uncertainty to the F&B industry, we’ve also seen consumers’ unwavering appetite for delicious and unique food. During the pandemic, we noticed a huge increase in deliveries coming in via Deliveroo, and this gave us the encouragement and confidence to launch our virtual brand The Digital Kitchen.
Building a virtual brand in this climate has challenged us to be intentional about every launch, ensuring that we build high quality and niche F&B concepts to satisfy our customers’ tastes. We closely monitor our operations and consumer insights to identify opportunities to streamline and grow our business. We have also been steadily increasing our brand portfolio and now have a much wider offering than we did at launch in February, which consequently has helped to boost sales.
CWA: Tell us a little about The Digital Kitchen and what brands they cover and distribute during this time.
We launched Shake Farm about four years ago, and branched out to building our virtual brand, The Digital Kitchen, with Deliveroo after observing an increase in delivery orders via the platform during last year's circuit breaker. To-date, we have 24 brands offering a wide variety of cuisines. The most popular brands in our portfolio are the ones that we unveiled at the beginning of this journey, namely: Shake Farm, our healthy fast food favourite, Pita Hero, perfect pita pockets customisable with sweet and savoury fillings, RostiBoy, delicious, crispy and fried potato rostis handmade with premium imported potatoes topped with a selection of delicious toppings, and The Super Foodie Marketplace, which encompasses brands such as The Original Cuban Bro’s, The Burrata Bowl and Vegan Dogs. We’re delighted that we’re currently seeing a 120%-150% monthly sales growth since our launch in February. Following The Digital Kitchen’s success, we are pleased to share that we are launching additional locations in Singapore this year and planning expansion overseas.
CWA: Is there a difference to the business model whilst building a digital brand as opposed to a physical brick and mortar restaurant? What advantages are there?
Compared to a physical restaurant, there are many merits to launching a delivery-only brand. For example, the business model allows us to market test and streamline our concepts first, thereby minimising costs or risk and also helping us to attract new customers to our brand on Deliveroo. With delivery-only menus, we are able to tap into cost efficiencies experienced from set-up and share ingredient supplies. With the impact of Covid-19, the digital brand has helped our business to become more resilient to safety measures that have naturally impacted customer footfall at physical restaurants.
CWA: How does Deliveroo play a part in the development of the brands? Do these virtual brands pay a commission towards the delivery platform? If so, how much?
Deliveroo functions as a testbed for exciting new restaurant concepts, allowing brands like The Digital Kitchen to reach a wider customer base. The food delivery platform collaborates closely with us by supporting and providing insights into our business. For example, their Marketer tool enables us to create and tailor our own promotions and offers for customers. They also further support us with insights and directions on marketing and social media; menu design; photography as well as customer acquisition and retention strategies.
In terms of commission, Deliveroo takes a commission on every order placed with our virtual brands, though we’re not able to disclose this amount. However, we understand that the commission Deliveroo charges goes towards paying their riders fairly and keeping them safe on roads, as well as covers the food delivery platform’s operational costs so that customers enjoy an amazing food delivery service whenever and wherever they want it.
CWA: Has the recent measures affected the way the brand has proceeded forward? If so, how?
Since Phase Two (Heightened Alert), we have actually seen an additional 30% growth! We have been very lucky to partner with Deliveroo. The delivery platform has committed additional resources internally and established teams of people across the business to help us transition from dine-in to delivery-only and takeaway outlets. They’ve introduced a number of initiatives which included encouraging customers to support their favourite restaurants during the dine-in ban through Deliveroo’s in-app tipping function, with Deliveroo matching the first 10,000 customer tips during Phase 2 (Heightened Alert). The entirety of the tip went directly to us, the restaurant, and is not subject to any commission.
