Kitchen United Buys Zuul
Ghost kitchen company Kitchen United has acquired software and ghost kitchen developer, Zuul. The agreement marks Kitchen United’s first acquisition and strengthens its position as the preeminent restaurant delivery and take-out technology and facility company as consumer demand for food off-premise continues to grow. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Zuul is known for creating products and services designed to help restaurateurs and other food service operators grow their business and focus on what they love to do: make great food. To date, the company has supported multi-brand innovators scale their business through simple tech solutions, offered restaurateurs opportunities to grow in its ghost kitchens, and provided consulting services to landlords and restaurants who want to build multi-brand ghost kitchen and virtual brand models.
[75% of consumers prefer to order delivery direct from the restaurant, according to HT's 2021 Customer Engagement Technology Study.)
Zuul Market and ZuulOS were designed to drive profitable food delivery for operators and a unique online ordering experience for consumers. Unique to Zuul, its ZuulOS enables operators to create their own virtual food halls and fulfill multi-brand orders. The company also powers native online ordering and batched deliveries with a partner network to provide an efficient delivery model that will marry well with Kitchen United’s proprietary technology platform MIX. Zuul Market allows established operators to create an innovative food delivery program under an existing brand. This will be translated to Kitchen United’s offering to support the proliferation of more virtual brands within its kitchen centers.
The Zuul Kitchens executive team will remain intact and the Zuul brand will be incorporated into the Kitchen United brand. The existing Zuul facility at 30 Vandam Street in Manhattan will transition to a Kitchen United MIX kitchen center. Kitchen United is slated to open a second Manhattan location this month.