At this year’s Arabian & African Hospitality Investment Conference and Global Restaurant Investment Forum, serial entrepreneur Ian Ohan, founder and CEO of KRUSH Brands officially announced the launch of Locale, a tribe of likeminded “owners” joined by a powerful belief in why great food matters.

• Locale is a community of quality local food brands, people and innovators who have come together under the idea of developing a better, more sustainable, food eco-system.
  
  
• In a time when third party delivery steals your customer relationship, Locale is helping brands take it back with proprietary technology and delivery science, seamlessly integrated with brand and operations.
  
  
• The app is set to launch in the coming weeks on both iOS and Android devices.

THE GLOBAL RESTAURANT INDUSTRY IS BROKEN.

However, it was breaking long before Covid19 changed our lives. Before facemasks and hand sanitizers were mandatory accessories, there were murmurings of discontent and frustration across the industry as start-up food tech companies started to become a larger, more disruptive element of the landscape. Discounts were becoming the norm. Restaurant P&L accounts strained under the weight of commission charges. Restaurant managers lost touch of who their customers were.

There was a growing concern that restaurants and their products were being commoditised and business models were becoming unsustainable. Covid 19 didn’t create these problems, but it certainly accelerated and magnified them.

It’s important to remember that disruption starts with unhappy customers, not technology.

The way restaurants and customers communicated with one another had changed. As consumers moved onto mobile devices and the digital revolution gained speed and popularity, restaurants & F&B largely struggled to adapt and keep up with these significant technological changes. A situation like this, where consumer and merchant are so far apart, makes for an industry ripe for disruption.

Fast forward to today and third-party delivery fees, rising labor costs, emergence of dark kitchens and big technology cutting off digital routes to market are leading to record restaurant bankruptcies and high barriers to entry.

The whole food tech ecosystem has become toxic and parasitical. Suddenly, the same 50 dhs restaurant check must pay for aggregator commission, cloud kitchen fees, royalties, and delivery fees and foodpreneurs and SME’s are hit the hardest. These foodpreneurs are often the people that drive innovation and creativity and bring a certain heartbeat to a neighbourhood or city.

So Krush Brands decided to do something about it, because there is a belief that good food matters. That good people matter. That good ideas matter.

Krush Brands has considerable experience and infrastructure that can make a difference for good. There is the in-house tech and software, that boasts an 85% direct order rate. There is a 350,000 strong marketplace, with 150,000 downloads of their app. There is the 63% repeat guest rate and a team of bright, driven, and talented F&B experts running it all.

Enter stage left, Locale.

What is Locale? Locale is a community. It is a community of quality local food brands, people and innovators who have come together under the idea of developing a better, more sustainable, food eco-system. It is a community of people who care about good food, good people and good ideas in the same way as Krush Brands do.

“Locale is a tribe of likeminded “owners” joined by powerful belief in why great food matters.”

With the launch of Locale, you’ll be able to order from Freedom Pizza, Coco Yogo, Salad Jar, Wildflower, Jet Lagged Chef, Viking Bageri and other local brands you love, with the ability to combine multiple products from different brands in the same order.

Great food from great people, to nourish our body, soul and community.

In a time when third party delivery steals your customer relationship, Locale helps you take it back.

They partner with beloved, local restaurants to seamlessly reach and keep more guests, improve margins, and increase revenue streams.

Locale helps great restaurants and food brands become more resilient by fully owning their customer relationship with proprietary technology and delivery science, seamlessly integrated with brand and operations.

By and for, restauranteurs. Always.

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About KRUSH Brands

KRUSH Brands is a locally owned “made in the UAE”, full-service, multi-kitchen, brand development, operating and franchising company. Developing and partnering with cool local brands that you love, bound together by technology, convenient and reliable, better-for-you food, from a company that cares.

KRUSH Brands owns and operates Freedom Pizza, Wildflower Poke & More, Coco Yogo Vegan Kitchen, Salad Jar, and has recently partnered with local, lovable brands Jet Lagged Chef and Viking Bageri with more brands coming soon.

It also owns Big Dwarf Food Technology that develops KRUSH Brands’ proprietary digital, online ordering, operating and delivery platforms and has recently developed Locale - the only full-stack, food technology, restaurant and delivery company, that owns its entire value chain.

Locale is positioned to capture the exponential growth of the online food and cloud kitchen market and will power all KRUSH Brands with proprietary technology, a robust delivery platform and its fleet of professional delivery drivers delivering fast, fresh and safe, every time.