Cloud Kitchens have been around in U.S. and European regions for a while now. Lettus Kitchens is built on the same cloud kitchen model to serve people in Islamabad and Rawalpindi with food that people love and, that too, at affordable prices. Lettus Kitchens prides itself on producing quality at scale.
The goal of Lettus Kitchens is to build a platform that helps food entrepreneurs launch and grow their own cloud kitchens using their research, technology, systems, etc.
Challenge
The idea of Lettus Kitchens came along based on:
Great food was unevenly distributed
The owners realized that some neighborhoods had great food options while others had limited options to choose from. They recognized that, by adopting the cloud kitchen model, they could easily provide consumers with great food options from virtual food brands, and capture the market share which otherwise would be difficult if they were to set up individual restaurants for each category.
Launching and growing a food business is incredibly difficult
No market research available on what cuisine/product gaps exist, building supply chain, managing kitchen ops, standardizing quality, and ensuring you’re making a profit while using an aggregator/your own channels was hugely challenging. Food businesses could use a better way to launch, grow and sustain themselves.
The restaurant industry lags behind in using tech
Everything from POS to inventory management to using tech to streamline operations was still largely missing in the food industry. World-Class restaurants have started adopting full stacks of tech to grow whereas, in Pakistan, the trend of using technology as a growth lever is yet to be found.
Since the inception of Lettus Kitchens, the cloud kitchen business has managed orders via food aggregators, its social media page, WhatsApp, and phone calls. directly pushing orders through their Point of Sale (POS) System.
With Blink, Lettus Kitchens incorporated its own direct online ordering channel into its existing business model.
Solution
Lettus Kitchen initially used a solution by one of Blink’s competitors but quickly realized that:
- Local Support is essential
- UI/UX of branded websites and mobile apps is important
- Having a Fleet Management System is equally significant
Given this context, the senior management of Lettus Kitchen began a search for a Direct Online Ordering Platform for Restaurants.
The Lettus Kitchens Management came across Nando’s website which is another online ordering platform powered by Blink. Impressed by the user experience and features of Nando’s website and mobile app, the Lettus Kitchens management got in touch with the Blink team to explore Blink’s Quick Commerce Enablement Platform. The Blink team gave Lettus Kitchens a detailed demo of the platform including the branded website, app, and back-of-house solutions. The partnership made sense to both parties, and Lettus Kitchen agreed to join the ever-growing list of restaurants, supermarkets, and consumer retail brands that use Blink for their quick commerce enablement platforms.
The General Manager of Lettus Kitchen commented; “Contract signing till my first onboarding meeting was smooth and at the pace I wanted it to be. The entire Lettus Kitchens team handling the Blink platform was able to get to grips with the solution within a week or so”.
Results
Lettus Kitchens has benefited substantially from Blink’s Quick Commerce Enablement Platform. The General Manager of the cloud kitchen comments:
- Sales have benefited given that we’re able to route customers to our own channel
- Marketing has benefited because they can now run ads and direct customers to our platform
- Operations have benefited because they can manage orders fairly quickly
That’s not all – the team adds that the UI/UX modifications according to their brand guidelines are significant and would have been a hassle, had it not been for Blink’s platform. Other unique features include localized SMS marketing, a dynamic dashboard, and push notifications along with a fleet management system. Blink enabled customers to directly order and derive more value because prices were kept lower than those that customers found on food aggregators.
The General Manager of Lettus Kitchens gave a resounding “Yes!” when asked if they would recommend Blink to their business network.
