Ghost kitchen industry leader Kitchen United announced that it has acquired software and ghost kitchen developer, Zuul. The agreement marks Kitchen United’s first acquisition and strengthens its position as a 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.
“As one of the first ghost kitchens in the New York City market, Zuul has laid a foundation that will further enable expansion of this type of business model in a massive, key market. As we looked for opportunities to continue to build upon our leadership position and scale into new territories, strengthening our platform with the addition of Zuul and its cutting-edge ZuulOS technology made strategic sense,” says Michael Montagano, CEO of Kitchen United. “I have long admired Zuul’s leadership team and we are excited to have their expertise and insight as we expand into the metro-New York area and beyond.”
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.
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 effortlessly. 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.
“We look forward to this next chapter for our company, and I’m very proud of our team for establishing a valuable, one-of-a-kind business,” adds Corey Manicone, co-founder & CEO at Zuul. “Kitchen United has built the dominant ghost kitchen business for the restaurant industry and we share the same goal of offering restaurants cost-efficient, low risk ways to tap into the ever-growing consumer demand for off-premise food. I look forward to working with the Kitchen United team as we execute on the next chapter of growth.”
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 in October 2021.
