Food delivery startup Deliveroo opened its first shared kitchen in Paris earlier today. Deliveroo first launched this concept of shared kitchens called Deliveroo Editions in London last year.
As the AFP reports, the company is starting with 12 kitchens in a warehouse in Saint-Ouen, right next to the north-western part of Paris. So far, 8 restaurants have agreed to make a deal with Deliveroo.
You’ll find top restaurants on Deliveroo, such as Blend, Petit Cambodge, Tripletta and Santosha. Restaurants can choose to pay a rent or get started for free and pay higher fees.
Deliveroo customers currently pay €2.50 per order for the delivery in Paris. But the company also gets a cut of the total order amount — customers don’t realize that Deliveroo gets a cut from both sides. It can be as much as 25 or 30 percent of what you order. It’s unclear how much Deliveroo is asking for those new kitchens.
But it makes sense for restaurants that can’t expand indefinitely. Deliveroo lets you accept orders without any additional table.
While there are multiple Blend or Petit Cambodge restaurants in Paris, they can’t deliver everywhere around the city. But opening a new restaurant also represents a huge investment.
That’s why those Deliveroo kitchens can be a good compromise. You can hire a handful of people and see if there’s enough demand in the area. It’s also a good way to differentiate Deliveroo from UberEats and other compatitors.
This is the first site in France. Let’s see if it gets out of control like in the U.K. The Guardian reported that Deliveroo Editions are now tiny containers with no window on car parks. It gets hot in the summer, cold in the winter, and you can hear a ton of mopeds getting orders from those metal boxes.
Deliveroo first started with the idea of helping regular restaurants accept online orders — not just pizza places with existing delivery persons. But containers on a car park don’t sound as attractive.
Update: A Deliveroo spokesperson has sent me the following statement:
“The new Deliveroo Editions site in Paris is a permanent bricks and mortar site, as are the majority of our Editions sites across the UK and Europe. All Editions sites are good for the local economy, work closely with local communities and host kitchens with high standards. They are popular with local people, chefs, and restaurants who use them to expand in to new areas.
The delivery-only super kitchens on are state of the art and bring together amazing chefs from independent restaurants and high street chains all into one location, dramatically expanding consumer choice in the area. This is good for the local economy, good for restaurants looking to expand and good for anyone who wants amazing meals delivered direct to their door.”
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