Whether it's a small bistro on the corner or a large restaurant in a trendy location: competition in the gastronomy sector is increasing more and more - and is increasingly shifting to the digital space. In order to remain competitive in the future, owners of full-service restaurants will also have to develop new sales channels. For them, but also for smaller providers, the ghost kitchen (also known as ghost restaurant) represents an interesting business model, in which set-up costs and other expenses are significantly lower than for a classic restaurant.

In this guide, we will show you what ghost kitchens are and why the model is excellent as an additional mainstay for gastro businesses. Learn more about the advantages of ghost kitchens and about different implementations. In addition, you will find 7 interesting tips to help your Ghost Kitchen gain more visibility and success.

Industry experts see a rosy future for drop-off and pick-up services. According to them, the business is expected to achieve impressive growth rates of 25 to 35 per cent in the coming years. In this respect, ghost kitchens are an exciting food concept that is perfectly suited as a business model to profit from the ongoing out-of-home trend.

Ghost kitchens as a second mainstay

Those who have gained experience in the delivery and take-away segment during the pandemic period should consider it a long-term investment. On the one hand, demand is unlikely to diminish in the near future, and on the other hand, restaurateurs with the appropriate routines are ideally prepared for possible future crises. Use the experience you have gained and the investments you have already made to offset your operating costs and build a second leg to stand on.

Low operating costs

Without a guest room, Ghost Kitchens require significantly less space than classic restaurants. On the one hand, this reduces the expenses for leasing or renting, and on the other hand, the smaller space requirement provides a larger selection of possible locations. Perhaps you can arrange favourable conditions with suppliers in the vicinity and thus reduce the food costs of your ghost restaurant? Overall, restaurant operators can consider more location advantages and disadvantages and decide on the ideal location for their ghost kitchen. In addition, operating costs decrease as the business model involves few to no service staff.

Expanded business model

Traditional restaurants with on-site catering may also benefit from the ghost kitchen trend. For example, restaurateurs can rent kitchen space to external operators of ghost kitchens. The additional income can be used, for example, to prevent a loss of turnover on days and times of rest.

Spin-off brands (see below) are another way to generate additional income. If your main business is classic in-house catering, you can establish a subsidiary brand for delivery-only or pick-up service. With your own branding, you can address different target groups and expand your customer base. Depending on the orientation of the new brand, you can expand your range of food and beverages and also offer the most popular dishes under the other brand.

More flexibility

Changing your own image is often difficult in the restaurant business. In order for the rebranding to be convincing, for example, guest rooms have to be refurnished and decorated. Service staff may also need special instructions or training.

The Ghost Kitchen, on the other hand, is a business model that allows you to react quickly to new requirements and current trends. To modernise or revise the menu. This way you stay much closer to the wishes of your customers.

Room for innovation - with little risk

Ghost Kitchens give companies an opportunity to experiment with new dishes and their corporate identity. Which offers are well received by the guests? Which approach gets the best feedback from customers? With the comparatively low investment costs of ghost kitchens, the financial risk is much lower than with on-site catering: large parts of the usual set-up costs are eliminated. Without walk-in customers, you also have more planning security, for example with food costs: document your needs to get a reliable picture of the required ingredients and high phases over time. If customer feedback is less positive and orders decline, you can return to the baseline with little effort.

Do you already run a classic restaurant with on-site catering? Then you can easily benefit from the high delivery and take-away demand. Behind the concept of the spin-off brand is the idea of making double use of the existing kitchen and its equipment. So instead of renting additional space for the ghost kitchen, you have food prepared for your new delivery business or take-away service in parallel to the usual restaurant operation.

With this business model, the necessary infrastructure of supply chains, refrigeration equipment and staff is already in place. If needed, your staff will step in where needed to optimise the kitchen's utilisation.

Ghost Kitchens in shared spaces

If your kitchen is already well utilised and lacks free workspace, communal kitchens make good value locations for Ghost Kitchens. As partners in an innovative food concept, independent brands share existing equipment and workspace to save costs in shared kitchen operations. Several of your own brands can also work in the shared kitchen. For example, if you are looking for working space for two or more spin-off brands with different culinary orientations.

Shared ghost kitchens take the pressure off your main operation. The external ghost kitchen allows you to expand your delivery and take-away offer in a cost-effective way and to develop new catchment areas. The parking spaces freed up in this way can be used by your service staff, as the additional space required by delivery vehicles is eliminated.

Rent out your own kitchen as a ghost kitchen

Even those who do not want to enter the delivery business themselves can benefit from the Ghost Kitchen concept. Reduce your operating costs by renting out your existing kitchen to Ghost Kitchen operators. The expanded kitchen operation through rented providers means an additional source of income that can alleviate financial shortfalls - for example in pandemic times.

Ghost kitchens are fully specialised in the delivery and pick-up service. The range of food and drinks must be optimised accordingly. The most important thing here is flexibility: If necessary, the virtual restaurant must adapt its offer quickly in order to react to new trends. It is important to provide a diverse range of high-quality products that can be prepared routinely and delivered quickly by suppliers. Ideally, businesses should offer classics like pizza, pasta and salads, while newer trendy dishes like bowls or sushi will appeal to curious tastes.

Tip 2: Become visible online

On the internet - especially in social media - gastronomic businesses compete for the attention of potential guests. That's why social media marketing is becoming increasingly relevant for restaurants. This is in stark contrast to the location of the restaurant or the style of the interior design: these hardly play a role for the customers of food delivery services and take-away providers.

For your Ghost Kitchen to remain successful in the out-of-home sector, it needs to stand out from the competition, especially in the digital space. Be active on social media and offer your guests a visually appealing website as a point of sale. The more social media channels you regularly use, the more visible you are to new and regular guests: an absolute criterion for success. In addition, you can make use of individualised packaging. These spread on pictures in social media and increase the recognition value of your brand.

Tip 3: Ghost Kitchens are also worthwhile in smaller cities

Opening a traditional restaurant with a guest room is always associated with financial risks. Especially in rural areas, alternative offers are slow to catch on, as many restaurateurs fear that customers will not come. Ghost kitchens are an excellent opportunity to try out new food trends alongside culinary evergreens. This way, restaurants can balance the demand for certain dishes - without having to bear the economic risks of opening a restaurant. This is how you bring a breath of fresh air into the delivery business, even outside the big city.

Tip 4: Enter into innovative partnerships

In view of the increasing competitive pressure in the delivery and take-away sector, it pays to remain open to new business models. Even though ghost kitchens currently offer lucrative advantages, for many catering businesses larger investments are hardly an option due to the risks involved. Fortunately, ghost kitchens can also be rented inexpensively or used jointly (see above). It is worthwhile to approach colleagues in the industry and organise cooperatively.

Tip 5: Stand out - with unusual offers

In addition to an attractive website and dense social media support, the internet offers other innovative ways to be remembered by guests. How about a live stream via webcam, for example, where interested parties can take a look into the kitchen? This makes your restaurant transparent and increases the trust of your guests.

Another option is virtual cooking events, which have become popular in the Corona era as a substitute for company or Christmas parties. If the participants live close to the location, your service staff can prepare the required ingredients to cook with them and, if necessary, deliver them the day before. Otherwise, you can use delivery markets or delivery services from various supermarket chains to provide your guests with everything they need in advance. A special bonus: If the virtual cooking session is successful, the participants may come back to your restaurant in the future. Those who don't like to cook for themselves may still want to enjoy Christmas festive menus. The matching to-go packaging is available from Duni and BioPak.

In terms of customer loyalty, you can also score points as a delivery service with personal proximity. Include a visually appealing card with a short, handwritten greeting in each transport bag. This will increase the recognition value of your brand and give your food delivery a personal touch that will be remembered with little effort.

Tip 6: Service staff as delivery people

The pandemic has also put the staff of catering establishments in a precarious situation at times. If the Ghost Kitchen is busy enough, you can continue to employ service staff in the food delivery service - possibly even on a part-time basis. This way you use your capacities and support your team in the crisis.
In this way, longer periods of the day can be covered and additional turnover can be generated.

Tip 7: Make good use of periods with few on-site customers

Ghost kitchens are an excellent option for anyone who wants to offer their food service outside of peak hours. Ghost Kitchens offer the flexibility needed to reach, for example, home office workers, businesses and/or their canteens. As a supplement to in-house catering, longer periods of the day can be covered and additional turnover can be generated.

Tip: Do you already know the Duniform hygiene seal concept? For fatty and liquid dishes, we offer various trays with a plus in sustainability. The Duniform seal effectively protects against leakage.

Ghost Kitchens also has a special responsibility when it comes to environmental protection. As suppliers for the delivery and take-away business, they generate a particularly large amount of packaging waste. Not long ago, many delivery services resorted to environmentally harmful disposable plastic or polystyrene packaging.

But that is changing! Since 3 July 2021, there has been a comprehensive plastic ban in the EU, which prohibits the sale of plastic and Styrofoam food containers. Added to this is the growing environmental awareness of consumers: They also challenge the catering industry by expecting and rewarding environmentally friendly packaging solutions - for example, with free publicity on social media or with additional orders. Fortunately, there is already a wide range of environmentally friendly alternatives to plastic! With them, packaging becomes an effective flagship for delivery services and take-away providers.

Practical, robust, environmentally friendly

Duni and BioPak ecological packaging brings together low costs, high quality and verifiable sustainability in a wide selection. As an alternative to plastic, we rely on renewable raw materials such as sugar cane fibre, cardboard or wood. These materials can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 90 percent.

Our products made from recycled PET also help to reduce your carbon footprint. By recycling, we avoid fossil raw materials such as plastic or EPS. We offset the remaining emissions from the production of rPET by supporting various environmental projects. For the best possible hygiene and leakage safety, we use minimal barrier layers, something made of PLA.

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The sustainable packaging materials from Duni and BioPak

Ghost kitchens score as a catering concept with low operating costs and low effort in implementation. Catering without a guest room is the ideal business model for times of crisis, but is also generally suitable for making efficient use of staff and work areas.

From sharing with other businesses to renting out your own space, Ghost Kitchens offer potential for businesses of different sizes and budgets. Moreover, restaurateurs can already create good conditions for the success of their ghost kitchen with relatively simple measures.

FAQ on the topic of Ghost Restaurant

What is a Ghost Kitchen?

Ghost Kitchens (also known as ghost kitchens or ghost restaurants) are gastronomic businesses without a dining room. Here, food is only prepared for delivery or collection - consumption on site is not intended. Ghost restaurants allow their operators, for example, to experiment with secondary brands, serve culinary niches or react to current food trends at short notice. The financial risk is low, as restaurateurs have to pay less for leasing and rental costs thanks to the reduced space and do not need service staff outside the kitchen. In addition, several businesses can share the location or even work together, which saves additional costs.