NEWS | Swiggy, Zomato shut operations in Hyderabad after executives fined

The police’s post-10 am clampdown, on Saturday, brought food delivery across the twin cities to a grinding halt, leaving both service providers and residents flustered— market leaders Swiggy and Zomato decided to put brakes on their operations in Hyderabad

The police’s post-10 am clampdown, on Saturday, brought food delivery across the twin cities to a grinding halt, leaving both service providers and residents flustered.

So much so that market leaders Swiggy and Zomato decided to put brakes on their operations in Hyderabad, unless further clarification from authorities on the issue.

Incidentally, in the lockdown order issued earlier this month, the state government categorically mentioned that “e-commerce (delivery) of goods and merchandise including food, pharmaceutical, and medical equipment” will be exempted from curbs imposed post the 6 am to 10 am period.

Yet, on Saturday, scores of delivery executives complained of being stopped and fined by the police, while on duty.

“They not only seized my vehicle but also imposed a fine of Rs 1,000. They need to understand that we are out at this time to earn a living. I also showed them the orders I received on my phone and told them that the restaurants are also functioning because the government has not imposed any restrictions on essentials like food but to no avail. The motorcycles of at least 70 delivery executives, in Mehdipatnam alone, were seized,” said Syed Osman, a Zomato employee.

Some like D Prabhakar also complained of being beaten up by traffic cops. “I have been delivering food in the same route since the beginning of the lockdown and no one has stopped us. Today, they beat us up if we even questioned them. We are being punished even though we are operating within the law,” the Swiggy executive said.

Even cloud kitchens operating in the city weren’t spared. “We received information in the morning that we have to shut down all our outlets. When we asked why it was being done, even though the GO allows operation of our services, they said we have to shut down since they are not allowing flood delivery executives to pick up orders from restaurants,” said P Vasu, co-founder of Varalakshmi tiffins and Istah cloud kitchens in the city.

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Swiggy to bring over 36,000 street food vendors online under PM SVANidhi scheme

Swiggy, India’s largest food delivery platform, has announced the expansion of its Street Food Vendors program to 125 cities under the Prime Minister Street Vendor’s AtmaNibhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) Scheme.

This follows a successful pilot that Swiggy initiated with the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs (MoHUA) in the cities of Ahmedabad, Varanasi, Chennai, Delhi and Indore, through which Swiggy has already onboarded over 300 street vendors on its platform.

Swiggy has created a special destination on the app where consumers can discover their favourite street food vendors. At the time of onboarding, all vendors are registered with FSSAI. Swiggy will then facilitate a Food Safety Training and Certification (FOSTAC) in partnership with FSSAI and their empanelled partners.

The SVANidhi Scheme has received loan applications from a whopping 1.47 lakh street food vendors so far. From these, in the first phase alone, Swiggy will onboard an unprecedented 36,000 vendors to whom the loan has been disbursed in 125 cities, potentially making this initiative by Swiggy and MoHUA the largest of its kind not just in India, but globally.

Swiggy aims to bring every kind of food experience to the customers’ doorstep; this includes street food, which is an integral part of India’s cultural and economic structure and is often unique to each region.

Swiggy also understands the changes and challenges that street food vendors had faced in the wake of the pandemic and which had forced many of them to shut shop overnight. In an effort to provide meaningful support to the street food vendors to revive their business and offer much-needed visibility, Swiggy is leveraging its platform and large delivery fleet to bring street food to the doorsteps of customers safely and hygienically. 

“Even as we go through more stages of Unlock, there has been a long-term change in consumer behaviour regarding continued social distancing and heightened demand for online services like food delivery. As a platform committed to bringing the widest choice of food to the doorsteps of consumers safely and hygienically, we’re delighted to bring them their favourite street food which they have been missing for many months now,” said Vivek Sunder, COO, Swiggy.

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Swiggy to reward its employees with ESOP liquidity program

According to Entracker, foodtech major Swiggy is going to reward its employees with a new ESOP liquidity program that will see participation from the family offices of leading industrial houses in India and a few individuals. This is the second such liquidity program by Swiggy. In June 2018, the Bengaluru-based firm had concluded a similar program.

“As the food delivery business makes a steady recovery and the future continues to look promising, we want to reward our team that has worked relentlessly over the last many months with a meaningful wealth creation opportunity through an ESOP liquidity program,” said Girish Menon, vice president of HR at Swiggy in an email.

“Over 40% of our employees with ESOP benefits – current and those we had to, unfortunately, part ways with earlier this year- will be eligible to exercise their stocks. Some of them will be able to liquidate their ESOPs at as much as 3x premium of the allotted price,” Menon added.

While the company hasn’t disclosed the size of the transaction, several media reports estimated it at around USD 7-9 million.

The development has come at a time when the online food delivery players are expecting to come up to their pre-Covid levels. Recently, Swiggy said that its food delivery business has recovered to around 80-85% of pre-Covid-19 levels in terms of order value. According to Swiggy, it had delivered over 100 million orders since the start of the lockdown in March till the first week of October.

Marriott to expand, continue food delivery biz even after COVID-19

Leading hotel chain Marriott International, which has seen its business plunge over 90 percent across its 123 properties since the lockdown, will expand and continue it’s delivery and takeaway business even after the pandemic-induced lockdown and social distancing end, as it does not see normalcy turtling back anytime soon.

As the lockdown was extended four times, the hotel explored newer options and landed upon the idea of home delivery of food under a new vertical ''Marriott on Wheels'' and soon it roped in food delivery chains Zomato and Swiggy and is keen to continue and expand this model in the long term.

On May 13, Marriott, in a novel initiative, tied up with food delivery firm Swiggy as part of expanding the Marriott on Wheels delivery service, offering over 20 hotels.

For More Information Click Below :

www.outlookindia.com/newsscroll/marriott-to-expand-continue-food-delivery-biz-even-after-covid19/1879808

Restaurants listed on Swiggy? Now you can get credit to buy raw materials with this new service

Key Take Away

Swiggy is looking to provide credit to restaurants, which are facing challenges in procuring raw materials, as part of a service that is currently in the pilot stage, a source aware of the development told Financial Express Online.

The new B2B service called Swiggy StaplesPlus will supply more than 250 raw materials, packaging material, fruits and vegetables, poultry and grocery, and dairy essentials apart from credit facility to restaurants, another source said.

For More Information

www.financialexpress.com/industry/sme/swiggy-to-launch-new-service-staples-plus-to-offer-credit-to-restaurants/1972562/

Swiggy starts home delivery of alcohol

Key Take Away

Food delivery platform Swiggy started doorstep delivery of alcohol in Jharkhand through the ‘Wine Shops’ category on its app.

To ensure the safe delivery of alcohol and in compliance with applicable laws, Swiggy has introduced measures such as mandatory age verification and user authentication to fulfill orders. All orders will carry an OTP which needs to be provided by the customer at the time of delivery. This is being done to put a cap on the quantity which is being ordered

For More Information:

economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/startups/newsbuzz/swiggy-starts-home-delivery-of-alcohol/articleshow/75863663.cms

Cloud Kitchens — Top 10 mistakes that take your business down

Key Take Away

Foodtech startups have re-defined the food consumption of an average Indian customer. From gourmet to street foods delivered to our home by the innovative, algorithm-driven apps assigning a fleet of concierge delivery guys who pick up the food from several choices of restaurants, disrupting the food industry — both in organized and unorganized sectors.

One such advantage of this technology-driven delivery platform is the existence of Cloud kitchens or dark kitchens. 

The major reasons for the failure of these kitchens are:

1. Lack of Business vision

2. Huge leap in Aggregators commission

3. Too Many Players in the Same Segment

4. Pricing Factor

5. Zero Market Research

6. Lack of Consistency

7. Lack of Technology

8. Dependency on Unreliable Labour

9. Flawed Costing

10. Lack of Structure and Process

For more information visit :

https://medium.com/@srinivasanrangarajalu/10-reasons-for-the-failure-of-cloud-kitchens-any-food-business-3c2ea2dfb65

Coronavirus impact: Swiggy to lay off 1,000 employees as demand slumps 60%

Online food delivery platform Swiggy might lay off around 1,000 employees as demand crashes amid the coronavirus spread. The company is planning to lay off a part of its private brand kitchen team as well as discontinue operations at a few of its centres. The delivery platform is also looking to re-negotiate terms with its landlords.

Swiggy is planning to lay off the employees next month.  "As the lockdown gets further extended, we are evaluating various means to stay nimble and focused on growth and profitability across our kitchens.

 The Bowl Company and Homely are two of its kitchen brands.

As per the daily, the food delivery platform is looking to reduce its monthly cash burn from USD40 million in May last year to less than USD5 million in the next few quarters. The firm is looking to conserve cash for the next 20-24 months.

Along with layoffs, Swiggy is also looking to reduce discounts on meals.

Coronavirus lockdown: Hilton partners with Zomato, Swiggy for food deliveries

Hilton, a leading global hospitality company, has partnered with top food aggregators Zomato and Swiggy for home delivery of its signature dishes to customers, following a safe and contactless delivery practice. Currently, six Hilton properties are operational for food delivery via Zomato and Swiggy including Conrad Bangalore, Conrad Pune, Hilton Garden Inn Gurgaon, Hilton Chennai, DoubleTree Ahmedabad, and Hilton Mumbai.

Hotel's select delivery menu across cities features the top 20 signature dishes from the most popular F&B outlets of Hilton Hotels in those cities, at special delivery prices. Hilton claims to have always followed stringent hygiene protocols, and due to the outbreak of COVID-19, is taking all necessary precautions to ensure utmost safety in the delivery of food to its customers

Hilton will also be offering a curated delivery service for private parties and gatherings. Deliveries under this service will be done by Hilton's staff using company-owned vehicles

Vineet Manocha Senior Vice President - Culinary at Lite Bite Foods Pvt Ltd - A Great Place to Work certified company

The 21 days Lockdown all over the country to combat COVID-19, has left thousands of destitute, daily wagers, migrant labourers struggle hard to manage even one meal. We have partnered with Swiggy to provide them daily meals, so that no one goes to bed hungry. It's our bit of giving back to the society.