Foodpanda to soon open private label outlets

Food delivery platform Foodpanda, owned by ride-hailing company Ola, plans to open physical outlets for its private label brands The Great Khichdi Experiment, Lovemade and FLRT. It is also going to label them on Zomato, Swiggy and Dunzo food delivery apps, besides its own platform, sources told Economic Times.

This is close on the heels of reports that Ola is suspending Foodpanda’s food delivery business to focus on its in-house food brands. The intention is to scale up Foodpanda as a cloud-kitchen business rather than as a marketplace model. Foodpanda already operates around 50 cloud kitchens across top cities.

An Ola spokesperson said, “As part of our ongoing business re-purposing initiatives, we are focused on building a portfolio of own food brands and curated food offerings through our fast expanding network of kitchens. Many of these offerings are already available in all major cities through the Ola and Foodpanda apps.”

Foodpanda is Ola’s second stint in the food-tech sector. It started Ola Café in 2015 and shut it down within a year in 2016. Ola had acquired Foodpanda’s India unit for USD 40-50 million in December 2017.