Over 110,000 eating and drinking establishments closed in the US due to the Covid-19 pandemic, according to an article by Fortune.
Here in the Philippines, although there are no records to show the exact number of restaurants that were forced to shutdown (many permanently), or how much they were affected by the pandemic, you don’t need any official statistics to know that things have gotten very bad.
If the big and mighty Jollibee was forced to close 255 of its stores, what chance do the smaller ones have? But restaurants are not giving up without a fight. And cloud kitchens might just be the weapon they need.
A cloud kitchen—also referred to as a “virtual kitchen” or “ghost kitchen” or—is a commercial kitchen space that provides food businesses the facilities and services needed to prepare menu items for delivery and takeout. Unlike traditional brick-and-mortar locations, cloud kitchens allow food businesses to create and deliver food products with minimal overhead.
The GrabKitchen in Makati was one of the first cloud kitchens to open in the country before the pandemic struck last year. The concept was first introduced in Indonesia in 2018 and has since become the largest regional cloud kitchen operator in Southeast Asia.
GrabKitchen has over 50 branches in Southeast Asia including Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, and the Philippines.
Last month GrabKitchen opened its second cloud kitchen in Sampaloc, Manila housing eight brands. The merchant-partners include; Conti’s, Sinangag Express, CoCo Fresh Tea and Juice, Omakase, Mister Kabab, Army Navy, Pizza Telefono, and Happilee. Omakese and Happilee are opening their kitchens in Manila for the first time, while the others hope to gain more customers through GrabKitchen.
Grab Philippines Head of Deliveries EJ Dela Vega said GrabKitchen is one way to support food and beverage entrepreneurs to grow their business in the digital economy. It aims to provide food entrepreneurs the opportunity to launch their brands in new locations with a lower setup cost and to reach a wider base of customers through GrabFood.
Through GrabKitchen, merchants can expand and serve new locations without the costly capital investment that comes with putting up new brick-and-mortar stores.
Because the merchants are housed under one cloud kitchen, there are other benefits as well, such as the mix-and-match feature. Consumers can order multiple dishes from multiple brands, and get them delivered as one order, with just one delivery fee. Suitable for at-home family celebrations or office lunches, GrabKitchen seeks to make it easier for families and friends to share meals from the comfort of their homes or offices.
“For example, if you’re ordering food for the family and want a spread of sushi, cake, milk tea and pizza, normally you would have to order from separate restaurants for each of these dishes. But with GrabKitchen, you can get it all in one order without having to worry about the hassle of monitoring multiple orders and the additional cost of multiple delivery fees.”
Dela Vega said putting up the second GrabKitchen at the height of the pandemic had its challenges. “For one thing, we had to revise our timeline to make sure that the construction of the facility followed the necessary safety protocols. We had to make sure that the team who worked on the facility underwent health screening. Once the facility was ready, we then had to conduct food preparation training to all merchant staff. While we did so, we had to reiterate the importance of sanitation, wearing of the appropriate protective gear, and constant checks to ensure food safety and workplace integrity.”
As for safety protocols, GrabKitchen Sampaloc dela Vega assured follows a strict safety and hygiene protocol to ensure the health and safety of Grab and restaurant staff. “We have sanitizers and footbath mats placed at the entrance for proper disinfection. We also have temperature checks for everyone inside the facility every 3 hours and health monitoring forms that everyone must fill-up to identify any person who may have symptoms of any illness. At their stations, employees are required to wear gloves, masks and proper headgear to ensure food safety. These protocols are also in place in our first branch in Makati, as part of our commitment to food safety and sanitation.”
Grab said its goal is to open even more locations over the coming months leveraging on data to study the food landscape and identify cuisine gaps. With more Filipinos getting used to take-outs, and food deliveries, cloud kitchens might be the answer to keep more restaurants open even post pandemic.
APP FOR STAFF TRANSPORT
WE all have friends or relatives who work in BPOs, and even though they aren’t frontliners, they too had to report to work almost everyday and put their health at risk. So it was crucial for BPO companies to organize their own transport systems to ensure their employees’ health and safety. One of those was Concentrix, the largest private employer in the Philippines. Since the pandemic started, Concentrix put a priority on staff security, health and wellbeing, providing various forms of employee benefits and assistance, including its most recent announcement on offering free Covid vaccination for all staff who opt to avail. Aside from deploying a significant portion of its workforce to work at home, Concentrix also reconfigured its offices and even added micro-sites to help staff remain safely productive for operations that remained on-site. This included transport assistance to ensure that employees can reach their workplaces safely. After 12 months, the company has expanded the transport program even further, to ensure staff continue to be cared for.
Covering the areas of Metro Manila, Rizal, Cavite and Bulacan, as well as Laguna, the expanded transport is now in the form of 50 serviced fully-branded and dedicated Concentrix buses. Fully equipped with airconditioning and WiFi Internet, the company-provided buses are also compliant to all safety guidelines including sanitation per trip. Staff will be able to conveniently locate the routes, bus location, distance and available seats using an app for this program. The buses operate daily in support of night-shift staff, and traverses 15 routes to reach 27 Concentrix offices. Concentrix was recently recognized in the Asia CEO Awards as Wellness Company of the Year, and in the ICT Awards as Best Company, Best Employer, Best BPO and Best Foreign-owned company.
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