Swiggy wants to create 7,000 new jobs in next six months, expand cloud kitchen operations

Online food delivery company Swiggy is set to launch its cloud kitchens to 12 new cities by March 2020. Currently, Swiggy has established 1,000 cloud kitchens for its restaurant partners. Within two years, Swiggy says it has expanded in more than a million square feet of real estate space across 14 cities to set up cloud kitchens.

"Swiggy has always maintained that cloud kitchens will be the future of food delivery. Very soon, India will have the second-highest number of cloud kitchens in the world, only next to China," Swiggy New Supply CEO Vishal Bhatia said.

Swiggy cloud kitchens

Swiggy cloud kitchens allow operators to prepare, package and deliver food without offering a dine-in facility to customers.

"Over the last two years, Swiggy has invested over Rs 175 crore towards setting up and running these kitchens. This success has encouraged us to invest an additional Rs 75 crore to bring more partner cloud kitchens in 12 new cities by March 2020," Bhatia said.

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Swiggy says the cloud kitchen concept has so far generated more than 8,000 direct and indirect jobs in the restaurant industry. Now it wants to add another 7,000 direct and indirect jobs in the restaurant industry in the next six months.

The news comes amid reports about merger talks between Swiggy and Zomato. Earlier, there was a report that Zomato and Swiggy could merge soon amid looming threats from Amazon and UbeEats and both the companies were in a discussion over a possible merger. But Zomato denied reports about merger talks with its rival Swiggy and clarified that the company is not in negotiations with 'anyone.' However, Swiggy did not comment.

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 As of December last year, Swiggy held almost half of the market share in terms of the number of orders, followed by Zomato and FoodPanda.

Meanwhile, Amazon is gearing up to launch its own online food delivery division to compete with Swiggy, Zomato and UberEats in the Indian market. It seems like Amazon has plans to disrupt the food retail business and gain maximum market share in the segment.

Previously, there were reports that Amazon has a reserved capital of Rs 3,500 crores to expand into online food delivery business in the country.

Story image: Tanmay Patange

(With PTI inputs)