The food industry is undergoing a revolution… again. This time, global players are rushing to cash in on a new combination of range and convenience.

 

 

The changing food landscape

Over the last decade, the increased personal wealth of Australians has seen the restaurant industry boom. Television has raised the profiles of dozens of celebrity chefs and increased interest in the preparation and preparation of food.

Dining out is no longer just white tablecloths and encyclopaedic wine lists. Some of Australia’s best chefs have moved down market to reinvent everything from burgers to bao. The result? Available options tend to be a higher quality at a cheaper price.

Ask anyone who has a restaurant, and they’ll tell you that selling booze is where they make easy money. To rip the cap off a $60.00 bottle of wine is a lot easier than cooking food to that value.

 

 

Adding technology to the mix

Which is why Deliveroo and UberEats present such problems for restaurants. Without changing out of their trackie-dacks, diners can enjoy restaurant-quality food while sitting on their couch in front of Netflix.

Plus, they’re likely to be opening their own bottle of wine at bottle shop prices. The cost of a delicious dinner can be almost halved if a couple of bottles of wine and taxis are considered.

The customer is clearly the winner, but the ~10% added for delivery becomes a significant revenue stream once the delivery business reaches scale. Investors can clearly see the benefit of a cheap and efficient food delivery service. Deliveroo has raised almost US $500 million through successive rounds.

 

 

Inner-city apartment design

With Australians living an increasingly urbane existence, the prolificacy of food delivery services is even changing the way we build. Following on from a trend that emerged in New York about a decade ago, the idea of a one or two-bedroom apartment without a kitchen becoming increasingly common.

 

 

It makes sense. Why spend $20,000 and precious square meterage on a room that is used for less than an hour a day? Kitchen could easily go the way of laundries which are included within bathrooms in many apartments. Will a bar fridge and a microwave be all that a modern apartment needs?

 

 

Global players in line for a slice

Uber continues to dominate the ride-sharing space, and has cleverly leveraged its network to become Deliveroo’s main competitor. With the inevitable onslaught of autonomous vehicles (and Uber promising to deliver booze as well), will there ever be a need to leave the house again?

[UberEats/Deliveroo]