Gopuff Enters the Made-to-Order Food Business
PHILADELPHIA — Gopuff expanded into foodservice with Gopuff Kitchen.
The new offering brings made-to-order hot and fresh food to customers alongside everyday essentials. Gopuff's mobile kitchen facilities are within or adjacent to its micro-fulfillment centers, enabling customers to order breakfast, lunch, dinner, and late-night food and drinks alongside any other essentials all in a single order for a flat fee of $1.95.
"With today's news, Gopuff is launching a completely new category and raising the bar on how technology is making our lives more convenient," said Daniel Folkman, Gopuff's senior vice president of business. "Nowhere else can you order your everyday essentials while also taking care of dinner for the family or getting a quick coffee, all from one platform. This is only possible through our unique business model that features a network of hundreds of our own micro-fulfillment centers, and now, kitchens. Today's milestone represents a new way of thinking about the Instant Needs economy and will redefine consumer expectations."
Gopuff leverages its own recipes and ingredients from local partners to offer a mix of healthy and indulgent menu items, including hot, freshly prepared pizza, chicken tenders, salads, fresh-brewed coffee and matcha, and breakfast sandwiches.
The initial pilot program delivered hundreds of thousands of orders across more than 20 micro-fulfillment centers, including in Austin and San Antonio, Texas; Mesa, Phoenix, Scottsdale and Tempe, Ariz.; Miami and Tampa, Fla.; Nashville, Tenn.; and Philadelphia. Gopuff plans to launch additional kitchens across the country by the end of this year.
Late last year, Gopuff acquired Bandit, the first app-only coffee shop in the United States, launching the company's fresh food offering and jump-starting Gopuff Kitchen. Bandit was co-founded in 2019 by Max Crowley and James Gallagher.
Crowley is now leading Gopuff's business expansion efforts, including the Gopuff Kitchen vertical.
"We started Bandit with a focus on improving the customer experience, understanding that consumer preferences were rapidly shifting to mobile orders, especially for fresh everyday items such as coffee," said Crowley, Gopuff's vice president of business expansion. "Together with Gopuff, we are taking this mission to the next level and beyond by making it easier than ever to get everyday essentials alongside quality food and drinks all in less than thirty minutes."
Gopuff has also made a major push into local products, having launched more than 1,100 local products from more than 300 partners, including local in-market supplier partners, like La Colombe, Au Fournil and Dizengoff in Philadelphia, and Cartel Coffee in Phoenix, as well as Bandit in Austin. Some of those items are also featured in their Gopuff Kitchens.
Gopuff Kitchen consists of a proprietary all-electric fleet and maintains "clean cooking," meaning no open flames, odors, propane gas or fryers, and no combustion in the cooking or climate control processes. Gopuff's innovative modular design also allows the kitchens to adapt menus and equipment to the preferences of the communities it serves.
Philadelphia-based Gopuff currently operates more than 450 sites across North America and the United Kingdom, including 285-plus micro-fulfillment centers and 185-plus recently acquired BevMo! and Liquor Barn locations.