There’s been a boom in online food orders in the UK leading to a rise in ghost kitchens, or dark kitchens. But if you think they’re just for bricks and mortar restaurants looking to streamline their services, think again. Even bakeries could take advantage of the ghost kitchens out there.

Rewind five years ago and you’d be able to order your food for delivery with a fairly limited menu choice. Indian, Chinese and pizza were the winners, while trying to track down a traditional roast dinner or box of doughnuts for home delivery was as tough as the eat-in sector during 2020’s pandemic. In 2019 the food service delivery market was worth an estimated £8.5billion, largely driven by the rise of online delivery concepts. Of course, then along came the Covid-19 pandemic, shuttering the nation’s restaurants, cafes and bakeries and forcing them to adapt  to a delivery or collection-only model. Yet even before this, takeaway expenditure was growing faster than any other restaurant sector.

What is a Ghost Kitchen?

A ghost kitchen is a food business that sells through digital channels predominantly – if not exclusively. This means your customers have an App or an online menu to place their order and customer contact is reduced to the bare minimum: when placing an order and when accepting their delivery. A ghost kitchen’s sole purpose is to fulfil food orders that originate online – and the demand for online deliveries is fuelling the massive growth in the sector. 

Take East London’s Karma Kitchen for example. It’s a 3,000 sq ft warehouse, hosting five fully equipped private kitchens, and one shared kitchen with several large workbenches.  These benches are available to hire for eight-hour sessions in two separate day slots, or overnight for a little less in cost. Entrepreneurs or businesses can hire benches from £90 with whole kitchens at nearly double that. 

Karma Kitchen handles all the non-cooking kitchen operations, including cleaning, pest control and waste management. There are no seated or dining areas for customers, only a pickup area where numerous couriers await their next delivery.

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Reap the Benefits

One of the biggest benefits of running a ghost kitchen is the significant cost savings you can make. There’s no need to take out a long lease on a retail unit or invest in creating a space that will tempt customers in. The main attraction for your customers will be your food, with the added bonus that they don’t have to go outside to procure it.

Rather than investing in a commercial unit to run your business, you can invest your hard-earned cash in the technology behind a successful ghost start-up. This technology can help drive sales, identify gaps in the market, manage your inventory, and streamline your whole operation.

Choose your Kitchen

There are multiple ways you can set up your own ghost bakery – ranging from the low cost, low commitment, through to the heavy investment, high risk.

Hire a kitchen

You could hire a kitchen space through an infrastructure provider. The risk is lower as usually there is a low level of commitment required in hiring the kitchen and rents are affordable. In return, you’ll get a fully kitted-out space from which to fulfil orders. You can also make savings if the kitchen space runs shifts and you’re willing to take the overnight slot – ideal for a bakery.

Use a third party

In the UK, there are multiple companies who will provide you with kitchen space and manage the delivery for you as well as provide you with a platform thanks to their own food ordering apps. Think Deliveroo, Uber Eats, Just Eat and the like. The rent is usually paid in the form of a cut of all the sales you make, so while start-up costs are low, your profits are also reduced.

Go it alone

You could also set up your own ghost kitchen from which to operate out of – but you’ll need deeper pockets, as equipping it to a high spec can be an expensive business. While established brands may find this the best long-term option, many start-ups or smaller businesses will find it very difficult to start from scratch in this way.

Win at The Hunger Games

As well as minimising your start-up costs you can also limit staffing costs associated with handling the logistics, helping to keep your overheads even lower. Some kitchens-for-hire will even take care of some of the low-level logistics on your behalf, like cleaning, waste management and pest control. The less you have to focus on the more you can focus on growing your bakery quickly.

A ghost kitchen can be a great way to test the waters, and if successful, to scale quickly. The money you can save on rent, staff, seating etc can be channelled into innovation and marketing. Investing heavily into tech can not only ensure a smooth interface for your customers and flawless delivery but also help identify new locations where your products are in demand. You can use a ghost kitchen to leverage local market knowledge and deliver what the local clientele is asking for. Marketing is also tech-orientated. Your target customer is there lurking on Instagram or Facebook, just waiting to discover your baked goods! 

Billing and the supply chain can be automated to make your operation as slick as possible. After all, the customer still expects an experience with their order, but this one is focused on good food, delivered well. When it comes to scaling your business, if you find success it should be relatively easy to replicate that success in another location by simply opening up another ghost kitchen – as long as you’ve done your research and know there is a demand for your baked goods there’s no reason why it should fail.

The Future of Fast Food

While when you think of fast food you traditionally think dinner with no washing up, the future could see more of us opt for food delivery for everything from our morning lattes to our afternoon pastry. A report from 2018, Is The Kitchen Dead? projected that by 2030 the meal delivery economy would grow to a massive £365bn, with the majority of meals currently cooked at home being delivered straight to your door ready to consume. In less than a decade, it’s quite possible that trips to supermarkets may be replaced with an App and home kitchens will shrink. Maybe Carrie Bradshaw had the right idea by using her cooker as an extra place to store her clothes.

While bakeries may not seem the logical choice for adopting the ghost kitchen model, if you can make the sums work then there’s every chance of success. After all, it looks as though convenience is becoming king when it comes to eating. If you can fill that need and fill it well, you’ll develop your customer fan base.

What do You Need to Consider?

Start Small

If you plan to go down the route of the ghost kitchen for your bakery then you’ll need to take careful stock of your menu. Start small, offer up crowd-pleasing bakes and essentials and get them right. People will expect their ordered item to be delivered promptly which means you can’t rely on baking to order. If your menu is too expensive, it could be wasteful.

Work Hard

Accept that you may have a harder slog in front of you. Currently, meals dominate the food delivery landscape so it may take some time for your customers to get their heads around the idea of ordering in a pastry. You’ll also need to give plenty of consideration to your pricing, people will not want to pay over the odds for a slice of cake, especially if they’re also factoring in a delivery cost.

Think Practically

You’ll also need to ensure that your creations can be easily transported – usually on the back of a bike. For this reason, elaborate towering sweet treats may not fare well, fortunately, loaves of bread and simpler baked goods can usually stand up to being moved around. Instead, getting creative with toppings and fillings would still delight customers, without the disappointment of a dismantled good when it arrives at their door.

Setting up a ghost kitchen can help you keep pace with your customer expectations and embrace a trend that looks set to stay. And if you need any further inspiration we love this story of two rookie bakers from Mexico City who are nailing the ghost bakery model.

Ghost kitchens can support the entrepreneurial at heart, by serving up a route to market for startups, with a low-cost opportunity, or give support for an established bakery looking to expand into the ever-growing digital market. So what are you waiting for? Regardless of how you plan to launch or expand your bakery business, British Bakels is here by your side. Convenient ingredients which deliver on eating quality gives aspiring ghost bakeries an opportunity to kick-start their business. From bread concentrates that deliver valid health/nutrition claims, to vegan-suitable patisserie ingredients for the growing plant-based consumer, our ingredients are focused on serving today’s consumer. Contact us to find out how we can support you.

Setting up a ghost kitchen can help you keep pace with your customer expectations and embrace a trend that looks set to stay. And if you need any further inspiration we love this story of two rookie bakers from Mexico City who are nailing the ghost bakery model.

Ghost kitchens can support the entrepreneurial at heart, by serving up a route to market for startups, with a low-cost opportunity, or give support for an established bakery looking to expand into the ever-growing digital market. So what are you waiting for? Regardless of how you plan to launch or expand your bakery business, British Bakels is here by your side. Convenient ingredients which deliver on eating quality gives aspiring ghost bakeries an opportunity to kick-start their business. From bread concentrates that deliver valid health/nutrition claims, to vegan-suitable patisserie ingredients for the growing plant-based consumer, our ingredients are focused on serving today’s consumer. Contact us to find out how we can support you.