Deliveroo builds its own kitchens to help restaurants expand

Deliveroo's food delivery services are convenient provided your favourite restaurant is signed up and willing to cover your post code. All too often, you'll open the app only to find that what you really want to eat isn't available. Deliveroo's solution is 'Editions,' a network of small, delivery-only kitchens that can help restaurants to reach more people. Following a trial in London, the company is rolling out the concept nationwide. Thirty Editions will be available at launch, covering 200 restaurants and, Deliveroo claims, creating more than 1,000 jobs in the process.

The chefs will still be employed by their respective restaurants. Deliveroo's main contribution is a software platform which will track customer demand in different areas. Using this data, it'll pick the restaurants that it believes have the best chance of being successful in any given area, and then provide the necessary infrastructure -- the kitchen, its fleet of couriers, and a slither of marketing -- to get their businesses started. For restaurants, it should be a way of minimising the risk normally associated with setting up a new location. They will, of course, be tied to the Deliveroo platform, but in return they get access to the app's user base.

Deliveroo operates in more than 140 cities spread across 12 countries. The company want to expand 'Editions' to another five countries later this year, but has refrained from explaining which markets and when. The concept is certainly novel, and could serve as a unique differentiator against Deliveroo's competition, which includes UberEats, Amazon Prime Now and Just Eat. "This is the biggest development in the market since Deliveroo first launched," Will Shu, chief executive of Deliveroo said.