EXCLUSIVE: Restaurateurs look to make a mark in the emerging DIY kits category
Find out how e-commerce site Restaurant Kits hopes to help the sector.
A new business is looking to make a splash in the new ‘at home’, DIY restaurant kit category, hoping to be a financially and operationally stable new opportunity for restaurants amidst the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Restaurant Kits is positioned as a new to market e-commerce site delivering signature dish and drink kits from the UK’s independent restaurants nationwide.
It is the brainchild of Scottish restaurateurs, and Mac & Wild co-founders, Andy Waugh and Calum Mackinnon along with Edward Alun-Jones, the hospitality technology entrepreneur behind Top City Bites and Orderu.
Founding partners also include Pizza Pilgrims co-founders Thom and James Elliot, 12:51 and Around the Cluck founder James Cochran, Yum Bun founder Lisa Meyer, Flank founder Tom Griffiths and Kricket co-founders Rik Campbell and Will Bowlby.
The founding team aimed to centralise what they see as a “currently fragmented” kit space to support the hospitality industries’ post COVID-19 survival plans whilst supporting local communities.
Restaurant Kits offer restaurateurs two service options: a listing and marketing option and a “full-service” end-to-end solution that includes kit development support and marketing from a centralised kitchen, fulfilment, inventory management and customer service.
“By offering the 2 options, we hope to be able to support any restaurant with a great at home kit, looking to share and scale that new element of their business. For some, the logistics of posting and fulfilling may not be an issue and that’s cool – they can still benefit from the centralised voice and leverage of the platform. But for many, we’re finding they need the end-to-end solution to make this a sustainable option for them,” Mackinnon said.
Restaurant Kits will promote listed partners through their social media channels and growing newsletter database, helping brands reach potential customers across the country.
“We’ve worked hard to put a hospitality platform & software system in place to help restaurants reopen during and in the aftermath of COVID-19. We’re offering the restaurants the option to manage the Restaurant Kits service themselves or hand everything over for our internal team to handle. We have the infrastructure and scale to handle every element of kit development and fulfilment for the restaurateur if needed – we find for many this is a very attractive solution as they re-focus on opening their sites and need the real estate to serve traditional customers,” Alun-Jones explained.
Waugh and Mckinnon also confirmed to QSR Media that they are looking at introducing a subscription model and regular live cook-alongs with the chefs involved in their platform.
“Kit sales have definitely reduced now but are still good - brands can now have a much wider customer base and those customers might not live close enough to the restaurant to be able to actually visit,” they said.
In terms of their selection criteria, the team said they prefer working with operators “who are truly passionate about what they do and focus on quality.” Dishoom and By Chloe are some of the brands they would also like to have on the platform.
“We now get a lot of people approaching us but we also contact restaurants direct(ly), who have launched kits we like,” they noted.
The restaurateurs also stressed that having meal kits does not cannibalise restaurants’ in-store trading.
“There is always a time and a place for going to a restaurant and you can’t replicate that same feeling of being in a restaurant at home. However, we feel it gives the customer a different way to engage with the brand. The how-to videos are done by the chef or owner and it's great fun cooking alongside them and learning a few tips along the way,” they said.
