Swiggy expands Access kitchens to four metros

New Delhi: Online delivery startup Swiggy (Bundl Technologies Pvt. Ltd) has expanded Swiggy Access to four metros in the country with kitchens in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Hyderabad and plans to on-board new restaurants in over 30 cities by 2020.

Launched in November 2017, Swiggy Access allows its restaurant partners to set up kitchen spaces in neighbourhoods where they don’t currently operate, enabling expansion for its partners.

Swiggy launched its first Access kitchen with five restaurants in Bengaluru, housing two of its restaurant partners—Leon Grill and Keventers along with its own private brands, The Bowl Company, House of Dabbas and Punjabi Rasoi—to share the 3,200 sq.ft kitchen space late last year.

It also houses over 30 brands, including Paradise Biryani and Krispy Kreme, Vasudev Adigas and Truffles, the company said in a statement.

According to the company, as restaurants are turning into “delivery only” kitchens, the Access programme will enable partners to expand to more locations through the delivery-only model, eliminating investments in real-estate. Restaurants operating under the Access programme will serve only their top signature dishes on the menu.

“We want to encourage expansion for quality food brands, creating more success stories in the restaurant industry,” said Vishal Bhatia, chief executive officer of new supply at Swiggy. “We believe that delivery-only kitchens will be the future of the restaurant industry. Swiggy Access will enable this transition by rapidly expanding to more areas in Tier I and Tier II cities and working with hundreds of restaurants.”

As a part of the expansion, the company claims to have brought over 35 new restaurants to different neighbourhoods. It offers a ready kitchen infrastructure, helping restaurants save up to 25 per cent of their operational costs since Swiggy does not charge a rental or deposit from its restaurant partners for the Access kitchens.

In addition, the Bengaluru-based startup also shares customer feedback, existing preferences and unmet food demands with its partners to leverage the opportunity better. Swiggy said some of its restaurants are also using Access to test new markets.

“We’re really excited about expanding with them (Swiggy) through Access kitchens in other cities, making our much-loved South Indian food available to new customers there. We can hit the ground running in these locations without worrying about infrastructure, overheads and delivery costs,” said Biju Thomas, chief operating officer at Vasudev Adigas.

Mint reported last year that Swiggy has tied up with finance lender Indifi Technologies to provide working capital loans to its restaurant partners.

In the competitive food delivery market, Swiggy is pushing hard to compete to the likes of Zomato, Ola’s Foodpanda, and UberEats. It is also in talks to raise $700 million to enter into new businesses, especially in the hyper local delivery space, Mint reported.

Within the first three months of coming on Access, most restaurant partners have doubled the volume of their delivery side of the business, Swiggy said in the statement. It plans to open pods to introduce new partners restaurants in cities over the next 18 months.