Deliveroo to create own restaurant brands using £5m fund
The company says it will work with celebrity chefs to open new concepts within its delivery-only Editions sites and allow “international favourites” to test the UK market.
Deliveroo will also put its bank of customer data to use by developing new brands "from scratch" in areas where it has “identified that there is local demand for specific cuisines”.
It comes after Pho MD Mark Smith speculated earlier this year that the delivery company could become an operator in its own right, with the potential to rival its restaurant partners.
Deliveroo says it also plans to help existing restaurants with “significant growth potential” expand in the UK and even internationally, as well as develop new brands.
The fund will have a ring-fenced budget within Deliveroo and will be led in London by the team who ran New York food delivery firm Maple, which was bought by Deliveroo last year.
“At a time when there are so many barriers for chefs wanting to turn their dream into reality, Deliveroo will use our expertise to help restaurants to expand and help budding chefs to have their first shot,” says Caleb Merkl, VP special projects at Deliveroo.
Deliveroo Editions had 74 UK kitchens operating at the end of 2017, and now the company plans to almost double that number to 130 by 2019 with sites lined up in Cambridge, Nottingham and Manchester.
The delivery hubs have not been welcomed everywhere they have opened, and the company says it expects the locations of Editions sites to move over time to serve the “maximum number of customers”.
This year Deliveroo will also open delivery-only “super kitchens” in Madrid, Paris, Sydney and Amsterdam and intends to grow to 250 sites globally by 2019.
