Deliveroo is looking to partner with landlords and developers across the country to fulfil its plans to open 30 Deliveroo Editions kitchens by the end of the year.
It is targeting space in locations including Brighton, Reading, Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool (see below) and will target light industrial land, car parks and development land.
The kitchens will require at least 2,500 sq ft, and is looking to take sites on for a minimum of three years.
The concept stems from a London-based trial where the company opened kitchens – originally branded RooBoxes – in the capital, allowing existing restaurants to boost their delivery operations, as well as offering new chefs the opportunity to trial product in a new market.
It will use Deliveroo’s database to calculate where has the most demand for a brand’s product, and offer restaurants surplus kitchen space to keep up with growing takeaway orders.
So long as there is access to water, drainage, power and gas then the company is flexible about what sort of landowners and developers it works with and has said it could work on spaces including car parks. In locations where there is no existing infrastructure it will build its own kitchens.
Rohan Pradhan, head of strategic projects at Deliveroo, said: “It will depend on the nature of the property and of its use, but typically for Editions we will look to use light industrial or other vacant sites where we can get planning. We will work with any landlord whether on an estate, a car park or an existing restaurant.”
Deliveroo takes on the rent and all running and maintenance costs of the site, including any infrastructure it has to build. Restaurants then contribute a proportion of sales to use the platform.
Pradhan added: “From the landlord standpoint it is an extra income stream and we can use space they might not otherwise be able to fully use, and we are always looking to take at least three years.
We also invest a fair amount of capital into our sites as we want them to be places where chefs like to work.
We also see it as a place making initiative for landlords.”
Deliveroo’s trials in London have been near city centre locations with a lot of space. One of the first sites was in Battersea in a former delivery kitchen on the Battersea Heliport Industrial Estate on Lombard Road, SW11.
Ashley Blake, chief executive at leisure real estate investor Otium Real Estate, said: “One thing landlords may want to consider is that it will not attract footfall as there is unlikely to be a public eating area in the units. The main issue will be with neighbours/planners with heavy traffic on mopeds and bikes to and from the site. I suspect they will need space for pick-up/waiting couriers etc, so sites with service yards or in fringe locations with better access might be best for them.”
Bricks v clicks
Despite Deliveroo boosting sales for restaurants, there have been concerns of its long-term impact on the high street.
This includes both the disruptive nature of drivers collecting food inside restaurants as well as affecting sales of restaurant branches not registered with the delivery app.
Blake added: “When I have been talking to restaurants they see it as a beneficial relationship for them. The only ones that may suffer are the traditional takeaways offering a poor service. It is too early to tell what the impact could be in the areas where they set up, and restaurants do not seem stressed about it. Deliveroo is targeting big cities which also have student populations so there should be room for both.”
Peter Backman, managing director of foodservice sector database Horizons, added that although its long-term impact on the high street is too early to tell, there could be a negative impact later.
He said: “I think that if it is a success and we have more restaurant activity coming from lower cost trading estates then that could imply less restaurant activity on the high street. The next stage is whether any restaurants decide to close any down because they can trade from estates and there is less need for them on the high street. In some places this may be significant but at this stage we don’t know.”
DELIVEROO EDITIONS SITE REQUIREMENTS
Thirty locations across
- London – any appropriate site within the M25
Priority regions across the UK
- Brighton
- Reading
- Southampton
- Cambridge
- Cardiff
- Birmingham
- Nottingham
- Manchester
- Liverpool
- Leeds
- Newcastle
Requirements
- Minimum of 2,500 sq ft
- Minimum three-year term
- Access to water, drainage, power and gas
Types of sites considered
- Bricks and mortar – light industrial (B1C)
- Car parks
- Service yards and redundant spaces
- Development land
To send feedback, e-mail amber.rolt@egi.co.uk or tweet @AmberRoltEG or @estatesgazette
