The global marketing agency Wunderman Thompson's article Ghost Kitchens covers the growing popularity of delivery-first dining and the related growth of ghost kitchens, which are also called cloud kitchens.
Ghost restaurants are delivery only, online restaurants that skip storefronts and deliver food straight to the customer.
And one reason we're covering this topic is yesterday the food delivery firm Door Dash went public in spectacular fashion, ending the day worth a stunning $60 billion.
The food delivery business has been growing for about a decade and the rise of ghost kitchens was already a trend prior to the pandemic. But COVID-19 has massively accelerated this trend and greatly expanded the market.
And according to Euromonitor, the growth trend will continue. They're predicting food delivery will be $1 trillion global business by 2030. Key quote from a Restaurant Business article on the forecast:
The firm predicts that by 2030, food delivery could account for up to a third of consumers’ $3 trillion food spend globally. That includes roughly 50% of drive-thru business, or $75 billion, and 50% of takeout, or $250 billion. It will also take share from frozen meals (35%), packaged cooking ingredients (30%), dine-in (25%) and packaged snacks (15%).
The Wunderman Thompson article does a nice job of covering the trend, so we'll not bother rehashing their article.
But they end with a very positive view of the long term outlook for ghost kitchens:
Global head of food and beverage research Michael Schaefer predicts that ghost kitchens will define the restaurant industry over the coming years in the same way that third-party delivery services have marked the industry over the past 10 years.
