When food is the only thing the customer gets to taste and talk about— not the wait staff, not the location and not the ambience — the brains behind running a business that seeks to conjure up an all-new dining escapade need to dish out an experience that will linger, making the client get back to the brand.
KitchenomiKs is doing just that, layering it with data-driven decision-making and disruptive technology to place the entity at the forefront of introducing “sustainable, lasting and organic advancements in the food-tech ecosystem, both in Oman and across borders”.
KitchenomiKs, Oman’s largest Foodtech and cloud kitchen enterprise, was established in March 2022. The company has been set up by Founder and CEO, Aankush Bhatia along with Co-Founders, Aju Samuel, and Shrikanth Shenoy. KitchenomiKs has been created with the mission to revolutionise the food and dining space using innovative technology.
KitchenomiKs works on the hybrid food ecosystem. It is in the process of creating the largest chain of virtual multi-brand restaurants and establishing delivery hubs in Oman, with plans to move into the rest of the GCC by the end of 2023.
The business model empowers a service platform for restaurants, international brands and local Omani food entrepreneurs, partnering with them to reach a wider audience with scalability through turnkey delivery solutions for the preparation, distribution and expansion of food concepts without any capital investments.
KitchenomiKs has partnered with the Oman Convention and Exhibition Centre (OCEC) to operate its state-of-the-art and one of the largest kitchen spaces in Oman, spread over more than 3,000 sq. m. This forms part of the strategic In–Country Value (ICV) plan, designed to contribute to the local economy and propel Oman, which is at present the fourth largest market for the cloud kitchen industry and valued at $180m, to greater heights.
Aankush Bhatia waxes eloquent about kitchens, setting up KitchenomiKs, the way forward and operating one of the largest kitchen spaces in Oman in an exclusive chat with Business Plus.
Excerpts:
Could you briefly explain to our readers the concept of a cloud kitchen?
The food and beverage industry has seen tremendous changes and advancements in the last few years. Trends come and go in the industry. Some tend to revolutionise the food industry. Cloud Kitchen is one such radical concept that has taken the global food and restaurant business by storm. A cloud kitchen is a delivery-only restaurant with no physical space, dining area, or delivery counter. It’s a take-out-only restaurant kitchen with no traditional dining room or dining space. The functional kitchen is used only for producing food and preparing meals. Customers place orders from cloud kitchens through restaurant apps or online food aggregator apps. The other names for these kitchens include virtual, ghost, and dark kitchens.
The on-demand food economy is a changing one. How does KitchenomiKs plan to address the Omani market?
The food industry by itself is dynamic. Changes happen by the hour. My experience as a restaurateur has taught me that one has to be aware, agile and perceptive of the needs of the customers. The on-demand food economy is vibrant and, on the rise, globally. Oman’s on-demand food economy is bourgeoning. According to a 2022 study by Statista, the F&B sector in Oman is expected to be worth $$1.8bn by 2025. Oman provides an immense opportunity in terms of the food delivery business, with a year-on-year growth of around 22%. Through KitchenomiKs, we offer customers in Oman a variety of choices. Apart from our cloud kitchen options, we also offer food delivery models that include take-away, drive-thru, grab-and-go, and food courts. Offering a variety of services is key to not just transforming the on-demand food economy in Oman, but the quality of customer experiences too. We are also working with F&B start-ups, including food entrepreneurs, to scale up their business and reach a larger audience in Oman. This is a business model we would like to extend beyond the borders.
What is the business model of KitchenomiKs?
KitchenomiKs works on a highly automated hub-and-spoke system. Our three core business divisions are: create our own brands, promote other known brands and empower home-grown brands. We have successfully developed eight brands of our own in Oman, which constantly feature among top-rated brands in all the food delivery aggregators. We are gearing up to launch more brands in the next three months. Another arm of our business model is to collaborate with well-known brands to scale up their business through well-devised branding strategies developed by our well-experienced team while offering our state-of-the-art, advanced spaces as Kitchen as a Service (KaaS). Good, heart-warming food is the heart of our business, and we believe home chefs have the potential to go beyond the confines of their kitchens. With that in mind, we are in the process of launching a number of brands by ‘foodpreneurs’. These foodpreneurs have the opportunity to not only use our hi-tech kitchen but also work with our team to launch and establish their own brands.
Please tell us about the collaboration between KitchenomiKs and the OCEC.
Collaborating with the OCEC to make use of the 3,000-square-metre, state-of-the-art, hi-tech food processing and preparation facility was one of our proudest achievements at the advent of our business. We have partnered with the OCEC for long term to operate and make use of the space, which makes us the largest cloud kitchen operator in the country. Aside from operating as the central kitchen for all our brands, the facility will also function as an outsourced cloud kitchen for independent F&B brands to operate, including foodpreneurs from Oman as well as the region, while providing end-to-end services using advanced technological solutions.
In today’s increasingly complex restaurant ecosystem, what is the kind of role a company like KitchenomiKs plays?
KitchenomiKs aims to transform the on-demand food economy to improve the quality of life. We want to be at the forefront of introducing sustainable, lasting and organic advancements in the food-tech ecosystem, both in Oman and across borders. While nurturing and fostering multicuisine brands, we have layered it with data-driven decision-making and disruptive technology. There is nothing that gets us more excited than bringing irresistible innovations to the food industry using emerging technologies, creating stellar multi-cuisine F&B brands, providing remarkable food production spaces and designing a seamless food delivery ecosystem.
