Foodstars

An independent company is looking to rival Deliveroo in the ‘dark kitchens’ arena with a new 20,000 sq ft facility in East London.

Foodstars has unveiled 23 kitchens in Shoreditch that food companies can rent out to expand their takeaway businesses, or cook dishes for their physical premises.

The new site will mean Foodstars has a total of 45 dark kitchens across London, including premises in Bethnal Green, Vauxhall and Bermondsey.

Companies including Peyton & Byrne, The Vurger Co and lunch provider Nourish’d have already nabbed a space at the Shoreditch building, and the remaining kitchens will be marketed later this month. Renting a kitchen costs around £2,500 per month excluding bills.

The opening comes less than a month after Deliveroo announced plans to expand its dark kitchens business with the addition of 49 new kitchens across six more sites. Deliveroo launched the business, called Deliveroo Editions, in April with just 30 sites.

Foodstars director Will Beresford said his kitchens offered an alternative to Deliveroo’s offering, which focused on helping restaurants boost their takeaway businesses.

“Unlike Deliveroo, we don’t specialise in one sector. Our kitchens are the home of caterers, artisan retailers, restaurants, as well as food delivery-only companies,” he said.

“Given our close proximity to the City and Shoreditch, we will see a number of food delivery-only businesses operating as dark kitchens. Additionally we have various food and drink companies from the restaurant, catering and artisan retail sectors using our kitchens as central production units.”