CloudKitchens is Having Trouble Wooing Restaurant Chains
Nasdaq For more crisp and insightful business and economic news, subscribe to The Daily Upside newsletter. It's completely free and we guarantee you'll learn something new every day.
A specter is haunting ghost kitchens.
According to a Financial Times report on Tuesday, Uber founder Travis Kalanick's start-up CloudKitchens is having a rough 2023. Sources told the FT that the start-up, which leases out kitchen space to restaurants as one of the big players in the ghost kitchen economy (also known as dark kitchens), has laid off staff and abandoned some of its larger real estate.
Ghost Kitchen Nightmares
A major issue for the start-up is keeping large restaurant chains interested. Sources said that in one instance, Domino's tried out the service at a location in Las Vegas, but let the lease on the new kitchen lapse rather than form a lasting partnership. Domino's confirmed to the FT that it had conducted a "preliminary test" with CloudKitchens but decided not to proceed any further.
