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Singapore’s F&B Sector Assisted by Digitalisation Relief Fund

A Singapore food tech company and digital restaurant group have launched a restaurant relief fund worth over USD 700,000 in support of local restaurants. The fund will go towards helping restaurants and bars take advantage of underutilised kitchens to boost delivery revenues, the company said via news reports.

Established in 2020, the food tech company operates and manages 45 delivery optimised digital restaurant brands, which cook from the company’s restaurant as well as a network of partner restaurants. The fund will allow bars and restaurants to come on board as the tech company’s partner kitchen, with zero upfront costs. Bars and restaurants previously focused on dine-in will be able to seamlessly pivot their traditional business models by becoming cloud kitchens.

This will allow them to create parallel income streams through the addition of curated delivery-optimised brands, fulfilled through the partners’ kitchen. The tech company will also assist restaurants in optimising the productivity of staff, rent and equipment.

Existing partner kitchens are enthusiastic about the increased revenue and better margins they have achieved, the tech company said. The incremental profits from the tech company’s partner brands helped them retain staff and pay rent, they added.

With unpredictable dining regulations and enforced limits on restaurant capacity and entertainment in Singapore, the tech company said that they recognise the past year has been extremely difficult for Singapore’s local F&B community. In a spirit of solidarity, their inaugural restaurant relief fund aims to help the hard-hit industry adapt to a time of increased deliveries and self-pickups.

A report that Enterprise Singapore reproduced says that while cloud or ghost kitchens are not new in Singapore, the opening of more facilities has been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic as more people get used to ordering food delivery.

Food and beverage (F&B) businesses are expanding their reach by setting up in these kitchens across the island. This also reduces waiting time for customers. Some companies use cloud kitchens for research and development, others to test the market for new concepts. The latter has spun off another rising trend for virtual delivery-only brands that have no physical shop front.

This is a relatively new business model and F&B companies must consider additional third-party fulfilment costs and a revenue limited by the delivery-only model. Nevertheless, if done right, the companies can potentially expand their presence more quickly and more cost-effective via the setup of virtual restaurants in cloud kitchens said the agency.

With more options available, cloud kitchen operators also observe people ordering across various brands from the same site in a single order.

A cloud kitchen operator with a social enterprise model borne from the circuit breaker is looking to have 50 kitchens across Singapore. Its flagship launched in August at the YMCA of Singapore and houses nine brands. Unlike other cloud kitchen operators, the cloud kitchen operator covers the kitchen’s rent and manpower. Businesses must provide only ingredients and training for kitchen staff.

The F&B sector is getting used to the concept of cloud kitchens and it has become a new normal since the pandemic outbreak. The cloud kitchen operator has a unique model because they have their manpower rather than a landlord-tenant relationship in most cloud kitchens, said the company.

Experts say that big-name or unique brands can stand out from the pack. Cloud kitchens can have their respective distinct flavours and identities that people are familiar with and more likely to order from.

PARTNER

Qlik’s vision is a data-literate world, where everyone can use data and analytics to improve decision-making and solve their most challenging problems. A private company, Qlik offers real-time data integration and analytics solutions, powered by Qlik Cloud, to close the gaps between data, insights and action. By transforming data into Active Intelligence, businesses can drive better decisions, improve revenue and profitability, and optimize customer relationships. Qlik serves more than 38,000 active customers in over 100 countries.

PARTNER

CTC Global Singapore, a premier end-to-end IT solutions provider, is a fully owned subsidiary of ITOCHU Techno-Solutions Corporation (CTC) and ITOCHU Corporation.

Since 1972, CTC has established itself as one of the country’s top IT solutions providers. With 50 years of experience, headed by an experienced management team and staffed by over 200 qualified IT professionals, we support organizations with integrated IT solutions expertise in Autonomous IT, Cyber Security, Digital Transformation, Enterprise Cloud Infrastructure, Workplace Modernization and Professional Services.

Well-known for our strengths in system integration and consultation, CTC Global proves to be the preferred IT outsourcing destination for organizations all over Singapore today.

PARTNER

Planview has one mission: to build the future of connected work. Our solutions enable organizations to connect the business from ideas to impact, empowering companies to accelerate the achievement of what matters most. Planview’s full spectrum of Portfolio Management and Work Management solutions creates an organizational focus on the strategic outcomes that matter and empowers teams to deliver their best work, no matter how they work. The comprehensive Planview platform and enterprise success model enables customers to deliver innovative, competitive products, services, and customer experiences. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, with locations around the world, Planview has more than 1,300 employees supporting 4,500 customers and 2.6 million users worldwide. For more information, visit www.planview.com.

SUPPORTING ORGANISATION

SIRIM is a premier industrial research and technology organisation in Malaysia, wholly-owned by the Minister​ of Finance Incorporated. With over forty years of experience and expertise, SIRIM is mandated as the machinery for research and technology development, and the national champion of quality. SIRIM has always played a major role in the development of the country’s private sector. By tapping into our expertise and knowledge base, we focus on developing new technologies and improvements in the manufacturing, technology and services sectors. We nurture Small Medium Enterprises (SME) growth with solutions for technology penetration and upgrading, making it an ideal technology partner for SMEs.

PARTNER

HashiCorp provides infrastructure automation software for multi-cloud environments, enabling enterprises to unlock a common cloud operating model to provision, secure, connect, and run any application on any infrastructure. HashiCorp tools allow organizations to deliver applications faster by helping enterprises transition from manual processes and ITIL practices to self-service automation and DevOps practices. 

PARTNER

IBM is a leading global hybrid cloud and AI, and business services provider. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. Nearly 3,000 government and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and business services deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM’s legendary commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service.

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