Dubai’s cloud kitchen business: Getting too crowded for comfort or is there still room at the top?

Dubai’s cloud kitchen business: Getting too crowded for comfort or is there still room at the top?

Dubai: Which 'cloud kitchen' in Dubai is cooking up your next order? Seemingly, without anyone outside of the industry knowing much about it, cloud kitchens have become one of the hottest new business categories in Dubai after COVID-19 showed up in March last year. It ranks right alongside online grocery app launches and the 'Buy Now Pay Later' platforms as the trends to keep watching out for“¦ even in a post-COVID-19 business landscape. But can Dubai absorb all of these new and existing cloud kitchens? Especially when their business model is based on there being enough orders streaming - daily - through websites and apps to support an industrial-sized cooking and delivery of those meals. (There are now online ads that talk about launching a cloud kitchen in the matter of two weeks“¦) Adib Samara, head of Global Brand and Marketing at Sweetheart Kitchen, one of the biggest names in the region's cloud kitchen space, is hedging his thoughts. "I believe we are in a market with many wealthy opportunistic businessmen who want to leverage the 'Next Big Thing'," said Samara, who joined Sweetheart Kitchen after a long stint at Careem, the ride-hailing company. "I think it also stems from