Over the past few years, the food industry has witnessed massive changes. New ideas have been introduced by major players and widely adopted by restaurants and consumers. Most of these changes have been brought in by the pandemic, with the restaurant industry trying to find new ways to reinvent itself and reach more people while cutting overhead costs. Some of the innovative solutions the restaurant industry has been testing over the past few years, such as Ghost Kitchens and Virtual Brands, are taking the industry by storm.

The Saudi market has undergone many changes as well and is one of the biggest delivery markets on earth. In fact, today the food delivery market is worth 9 billion SAR, representing 1% of the global food delivery market. Saudi Arabia is also one of the fastest-growing markets and is expected to grow by 7.5% from 2022 to 2026 reaching 11.5 billion SAR. So it is no surprise that we witness some of these new, industry-shaping ideas taking place here, in the Kingdom. We spoke with one of the industry’s most innovative players, Sandeep from Cul.In about the advent of Ghost Kitchens, Virtual Brands and how an order aggregator like Otter helps them manage their delivery operations. 

The insights feature helps us have a more accurate and global view of our operations and lets us know where we can improve, so it has helped us in many ways, not just with centralising delivery orders

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We’re running five brands, and we are on 7 delivery apps so if we had to do any changes before Otter we would have had to do them 35 times. Now with Otter, we only have to change menu items 5 times, so it has really helped us a lot, Otter has increased our efficiency and decreased our efforts by 90%

Revolutionising the Saudi food sector 

Cul.In is one of the culinary innovators that has played a role in reshaping the Saudi food sector over the past few years. The company has utilised the strong delivery space in Saudi Arabia and the rise of multiple delivery apps such as To-You and Jahez to develop virtual brands that operate directly from their ghost kitchen concept. “Cul.In is a Ghost Kitchens concept based in Jeddah. We manage the operations of our own virtual brands as well as the operations of some third-party operators who want to join our cloud kitchen space. We handle their operational tasks and manage all their delivery along with procurement, operations and logistics.”
At this point, you may be asking yourself, what is a ghost kitchen? And what are virtual brands? Don’t worry, we have got you covered: 

What is a ghost kitchen?

A ghost kitchen is a food preparation facility that prepares meals for delivery orders. You can think of a ghost kitchen as a restaurant without dine-in seating or a kitchen optimised for fulfilling delivery orders only. A ghost kitchen can launch an entirely new restaurant or increase an existing restaurant’s capacity and reach by creating new “virtual storefronts” in different areas. A restaurant with a single brick & mortar location is likely only delivering within a small radius of their physical restaurant. If they were to create a ghost kitchen outside of that radius, they could begin delivering more and to an entirely new customer base. Many restaurants create ghost kitchens in high-order volume areas with significant delivery demand, resulting in increased reach, orders, and sales. Seeing as Cul-I is strategically based in Jeddah, that’s precisely what they’ve managed to capitalise on.  

What is a Virtual Brand?

Ok, now that you know what a ghost kitchen is, what is a virtual brand? In short, a virtual brand is a delivery-only brand that only exists on delivery apps such as Mrsool, To-You or Jahez but that doesn’t have a physical location where dinners can eat. The customer might be purchasing a Crispy Chicken Burger from a franchise like Gour.Made (one of Cul.In’s brands), but the kitchen fulfilling the order is based in their ghost kitchen space and is also preparing orders for their four other delivery brands.

We understood that it would be almost impossible to manage all the delivery orders for several brands without a delivery aggregator, so we did some research and found Otter which has made our lives much easier!

Streamlining delivery operations with Otter

These two innovative concepts have been introduced to cope with an ever more crowded and competitive food market in Saudi Arabia. “Right now the Saudi food market is very competitive. When you walk down any street you can find 10 restaurants and 10 cafés competing with each other, so it’s important to distinguish yourself on delivery channels and cut as much overhead cost as possible.”

An ever more complex and crowded food market with many delivery channels could result in massive operational headaches, especially when you are operating 5 virtual brands at once and are on 7 delivery apps per brand. This is where Otter comes in. “Back in June 2021 we understood that it would be almost impossible to manage all the delivery orders for several brands without a delivery aggregator, so we did some research and found Otter which has made our lives much easier!” Now Cul.In can manage its order from Mrsool, To-You and Careem from a single tablet.

One way Otter has helped Cul.In streamline its operations is through Otter’s Menu Management solution that helps the operator manage all of its menus and available articles on delivery apps directly from one place.“If you want to change any menu items, you just have to log in to Otter and make your changes and these changes will apply automatically to all of our delivery channels. Right now we’re running five brands, and we are on 7 delivery apps so if we had to do any changes before Otter we would have had to do them 35 times. Now with Otter, we only have to change menu items 5 times, so it has really helped us a lot, Otter has increased our efficiency and decreased our efforts by 90%” 

Otter has become Cu.lin’s go-to tool to efficiently manage its delivery activity but Otter’s solutions go well beyond just aggregating orders. “Everything on Otter is fantastic. I have gone through everything. I mean, I use it all the time, every day. So it's great for managing orders but we also use it to check on our delivery reports, monitor if all of our delivery channels are online, and check the order history. The insights feature helps us have a more accurate and global view of our operations and lets us know where we can improve, so it has helped us in many ways, not just with centralising delivery orders.”

When you are running delivery operations for 5 brands and have the ambition of increasing your overall brand count to 30 or 40 brands like Cul.In then a delivery aggregator like Otter will quickly become a very powerful tool in your arsenal that will help you expand and scale your operations. 

If you are a restaurant looking to manage and optimise your delivery business, fill in the form below and we will contact you for more information.

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