Kricket's co-founder on how delivery might fill the gap post lockdown

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Rik Campbell believes that delivery and takeaway could support some restaurants through a tricky post-lockdown trading environment.

Speaking on BigHospitality's United We Stand podcast, Kricket's co-founder said that he had been encouraged by the success of delivery during the early days of the crisis. 

Shortly before lockdown, Campbell and fellow co-founder Will Bowlby launched delivery at Kricket's Brixton and White City sites with plans to launch at its Soho site and potentially dark kitchen locations further down the line. 

"The plan with to pivot the business to support our staff during this period," he says. "It ran for four days and was very successful, especially at our Brixton site. But once the Government announced the support it didn't make financial sense for us to carry on, and there were safety concerns too." 

Following the popularity of its delivery menu - which unlike the restaurant menu offered several curries - Kricket may use delivery to support its eventual re-opening.

"Delivery works best when you're doing it alongside your usual course of business. It could work to complement the restaurants as we reopen. But it's so difficult to understand what the situation will be when we do re-open."

UnitedWeStand has been created by William Reed hospitality titles BigHospitality, Restaurant magazine and Morning Advertiser and is supported by Britvic, CocaCola European Partners and Unilever Food Solutions.

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