Zomato Will Deliver Food In 10 Minutes! Talks On With Cloud Kitchens, Restaurants

Zomato is reportedly in talks with restaurants across the country to launch an ultra-fast 10-minute food delivery service.

How Will It Work?

The company is looking to adopt the cloud kitchen model to be able to achieve that kind of delivery time.

The preparation and delivery of the food will be done through Zomato’s own warehouses.

It will reportedly begin trials in April starting with Gurugram.

A senior executive from a cloud kitchen startup confirmed that Zomato visited them and proposed working with the cloud kitchen in  a ‘co-working’ style.

Time Targets

Although Zomato claims that it achieved the 10-minute delivery target in an experiment in Bengaluru, internally its target has been set at 20-minutes per delivery depending on cuisine and location.

This will be reduced to 15 minutes in the near future.

In order to achieve its target, it is exploring options such as its restaurant supply arm – Hyperpure or renting out new facilities.

Along with that, it is considering models in which its restaurant partners can offer select menu items directly.

Co-Working Cloud Kitchens

It will ultimately develop a sort of marketplace but for food delivery which they will do through their own kitchens or warehouses.

To that end. it has started setting up warehouses and giving co-working style cooking stations to these brand owners.

It may also lease out new facilities for the same.

Employing Robotics

Notably, Zomato made a $5 million investment in a robotics company called Mukunda Foods which designs smart robots for the automation of food preparation in restaurants.

Zomato will likely make use of such technologies.

The machinery manufactured will help in standardisation of taste and reduce cooking time 20-50% for Chinese and Indian cuisines.

However, a challenge may arise in case of food items that take 12-18 minutes to get ready.

Obstacles Ahead

Another concern is that the number of items for the ultra-fast delivery category would be limited.

Cloud kitchens are more suitable for ultra fast deliveries due to them having a more robust selection of frozen, chilled, and ambient food categories such as chilled parfait, oatmeal, poha, etc.

Another problem is maintenance of quality and following standard operating procedures (SOPs) of multiple brands at one facility.

Managing multiple brands and making it all work would take a lot of gumption, but Zomato seems determined to disrupt the market with its ambitions.