Reef Kitchens a Brand Marketers Dream Come True

Virtual Restaurants, Ghost kitchen, are light on real estate, light on infrastructure (building cost), light on labor, and able to leverage brand marketing to drive retail growth.  The simple fact is building a foodservice retail brand cam cost you less today than ever before according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®. Both virtual restaurants and ghost kitchen are essential tools for every food marketers tool kit.

Regular readers of this blog have heard a lot about Reef Technology.  They know that Reef uses parking lots to offer services such as ghost kitchens.  Guess what they have now raised $700 million to expand the brand and your brand if you choose according to Johnson.

With a global view of successful growth the Reef Technology funding was led by Mubadala Investment Company, SoftBank Vision Fund, Oaktree Capital Management, UBS Asset Management, and Target Global.

So, think about the intersection of time and money, permitting, and construction cost being turned on its head when you think about the cost of growing your current business model. To date this is one of the biggest bets yet on the ghost kitchen model, a key part of Reef’s strategy.

Reef is a Miami-based company uses its network of more than 4,500 parking lots to create what it calls logistics hubs. These can include modular, off-premise-only “neighborhood kitchens” for brands including Nathan’s Famous and BurgerFi. Reef operates those kitchens as licensees.

Currently, Reef has more than 100 neighborhood kitchens in about 20 markets nationwide. It also uses the hubs for micro-fulfillment, COVID testing, pop-up clinics and vertical urban farming.  That’s right fresh fast retail distribution. 

Adib Mattar, Mubadala’s head of private equity stated, “The concept of transforming infrastructure to better connect the origin of production with the destination of consumption resonated with us,” … “Reef is strongly positioned to serve communities where they have key infrastructure, proving essential to food delivery, package delivery, grocery delivery and healthcare.”

Reef CEO Ari Ojalvo stated, “We are excited for this next stage of growth and are committed to continue learning, listening and working with our communities to reimagine urban real estate into localized and networked infrastructure that entrepreneurs and cities can use to deliver goods and services sustainably and directly to our neighborhoods,” .

In a separate move, Reef and Oaktree formed a $300 million venture to acquire strategic real estate to help Reef grow. Is your business model looking a customer ahead? Does your growth plan look more like yesterday than tomorrow?

Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing ideations look more like yesterday than tomorrow? Interested in learning how our Grocerant Guru® can edify your retail food brand while creating a platform for consumer convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization?  Email us at: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or visit: us on our social media sites by clicking one of the following links: Facebook,  LinkedIn, or Twitter