WeKitchens plans new dark kitchen to cater for booming food delivery market

The boom in Sydney’s online food delivery market has prompted plans for a new ‘dark kitchen’ where chefs would cook up meals exclusively for online orders.

The boom in Sydney’s food delivery market has prompted plans for a new ‘dark kitchen’ where meals would be cooked and distributed for online orders.

The sight of delivery bike riders would become more frequent in Ryde as part of plans for a $922,680 kitchen set-up where teams of chefs would prepare food to dispatch via apps such as Deliveroo, Menulog and UberEats.

Planned by Sydney-based company WeKitchens, the development would have 10 separated kitchen units each with food preparation areas, stoves, fridges and freezers, and other essentials.

A concept plan of the new ghost kitchen planned at 121 Church St.

The development would also come complete with an outdoor delivery zone for bike couriers to pick up orders to deliver to local and surrounding suburbs.

Up to 25 employees would work at the site at any one time, which would be available to hire.

“This is a perfect location for a ghost kitchen as it is in the heart of Ryde’s high density living and commercial areas,” the plans stated.

“The site is not only surrounded by tens of thousands of apartment units, houses, businesses and large hospitals, it is also among plenty of high density new apartment buildings that contain high concentrations of our targeted customers (including) young people.”

The set-up would have 10 separate kitchens.

We Kitchens owner Andy Tse said the proposal had been partly prompted by demand for online delivery during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Before Covid the food delivery sector was slowly growing but over the past two years it’s really accelerated and I think many people have become used to the convenience,” he said.

“Even now there are many people reluctant to go out, and instead want to stay at home.”

Mr Tse said dark kitchens – also known as virtual kitchens, smart kitchens, cloud kitchens and ghost kitchens – could support new businesses by avoiding costs associated with running a walk-in dining venue.

The business would cater for deliveries.

“If you open a restaurant you need to hire waiters and waitresses, the rental costs are much higher – for our kitchen they’re fully equipped and you don’t have to invest or take the same risks,” he said.

“They just come in, set up their kitchen and start trading.

“In terms of staff, usually just a chef and a kitchen-hand will be enough.

“We’re also seeing inquiries from established restaurants that need more space or want to expand.

“We’re not replacing restaurants – people still like going out to socialise and meeting people – but I think it adds something to the mix and gives people more choice.”

The company is not the first of its kind in Sydney with Chef Collective recently opening ghost kitchens in Artarmon and Kensington.

Mr Tse said he hoped to expand the WeKitchens set up at six different locations across Sydney in the near future. The plans are under assessment by Ryde Council and if approved would trade from 9am to 10pm seven days a week.