A Liverpool entrepreneur has launched an online food delivery business using a concept known as ‘cloud kitchens’.

Increasingly popular during the COVID-19 pandemic, ‘cloud kitchens’ are restaurants built around home delivery rather than sit-down service.

Philip Bell of ‘Lay The Table’ has been observing the online delivery performance of restaurants during the course of the pandemic and spotted an opportunity to provide “gourmet quality” cuisine with a much improved distribution offer.

In the short to mid-term, Lay The Table plans to have three to five sites on Merseyside producing takeaway food and up to 10 partners.

Popular Duke Street restaurant Sapporo Teppanyaki has partnered with Lay The Table for an eight-week pilot.

Philip says: “As a restaurateur remarked to us recently, the hospitality industry never set out to offer the kind of takeaway proposition it has been providing during the last 12 months and has merely served for some to either keep them afloat, keep their profile in the market and/or maintain jobs albeit at a greatly reduced level.

“As a fan of takeaway food myself, I noticed that whilst the quality of food, especially from established independents was quite good, they were often let down by their outsourced delivery service.

“Often the constraints in the takeaway market for food are that it doesn’t travel well and doesn’t get to the customer in the best condition possible.”

Lay The Table believes it has put together a business proposition that will “travel well at an affordable price”.

Philip adds: “We’ve been in talks with a small number of select businesses in the region looking to partner up and operate as part of their existing brand, commercial kitchens with storage space, designed to help them create a delivery take away business with maximum efficiency and minimal cost.

“We had some great feedback from these and then spoke to many focus groups about changing up the takeaway industry within food and implementing a new model.

“We know we can take the quality of a takeaway meal to the next level both in terms of presentation and create a family-inspired and family-focused quality experience too when it reaches its destination.”

A spokesperson for Sapporo adds: “The current climate highlighted just how many people were missing the Sapporo experience, particularly those that aren’t covered by a more localised delivery service.

“When Lay The Table’s opportunity was presented to us we felt that they had really captured what was missing from current delivery systems…the ability for us to deliver restaurant quality food, as it would be served in the restaurant, directly to our guests!”

www.laythetable.co.uk

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