Grow Your Own Food Delivery Empire With Shared Kitchens
Shared kitchens offer a solution to F&B business owners looking to modernise.
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What is a shared-use commercial kitchen?
A shared-use commercial kitchen is a fully licensed, council-compliant food production space used by multiple operators under structured agreements. Rather than building and maintaining your own standalone facility, you operate within a professionally managed environment that provides essential infrastructure, equipment and compliance support.
The shared kitchen model is part of a broader shift in the hospitality sector, similar to the co-working revolution in office spaces. Businesses share access to high-quality facilities while maintaining operational independence within their allocated space.
Growing trend in shared kitchen spaces
There’s a growing trend in the global F&B industry. Many of the more successful and savvy restaurant chains are growing at a surprisingly fast rate - and it’s because they’ve discovered a new way of running their kitchens with cooking studios. Delivery-focused kitchen spaces are helping restaurant businesses streamline just about every operation involved in their kitchen. Whether it be the size of your team, the number of orders you can fulfil, or how your space is utilised, shared kitchen spaces take efficiency to a whole new level.
As the kitchen equivalent of the sharing economy, the shared use of commercial kitchens - otherwise referred to as cloud, virtual, ghost & dark kitchens - offers the restaurant industry a chance to widen historically slim profit margins and operate a more efficient kitchen model. One of the biggest reasons behind this is the ability to cook for multiple brands within the same cooking studio space.
Why shared kitchens are taking over Australia's food scene
Lower barriers to entry for food entrepreneurs
Launching a restaurant has traditionally required significant capital. A shared kitchen lowers those barriers by reducing upfront investment, ongoing rent commitments and fit-out costs. Food entrepreneurs can test concepts in a shared-use commercial kitchen without risking substantial financial exposure.
Perfect for ghost kitchens and delivery-only brands
Delivery-first businesses thrive in a shared kitchen environment. Without the need for front-of-house space, resources are channelled directly into food production, packaging and fulfilment. For ghost kitchens and virtual brands, a shared-use commercial kitchen offers an efficient operational base.
What makes shared kitchens better than brick-and-mortar restaurants
Dark Kitchen
Traditional Restaurant
Real Estate
Traditional restaurants may occupy 1,000 sqm or more to accommodate dining areas. A shared kitchen focuses on approximately 20 sqm of high-performance production space, eliminating unnecessary rent.
Dark Kitchen
20
sqmTraditional Restaurant
1000
sqmEmployees
Front-of-house teams are no longer required. Many operators function effectively with two staff members within a shared-use commercial kitchen, supported by on-site management.
Dark Kitchen
2
peopleTraditional Restaurant
~10
peopleInvestment
Where a conventional restaurant may require upwards of AU$200K, entry into a shared kitchen model can begin from around AU$10K, depending on configuration.
Dark Kitchen
AU$10K
Traditional Restaurant
AU$200K
Weeks to launch
Opening a restaurant can take close to a year. A shared-use commercial kitchen can be operational within three weeks.
Dark Kitchen
3
weeksTraditional Restaurant
48
weeksTo break even
With lower overheads and delivery-focused revenue, operators in a shared kitchen environment often reach break-even significantly faster than traditional venues.
Dark Kitchen
6
weeksTraditional Restaurant
48
weeksComplete facilities in a shared commercial kitchen
Complete facilities in a shared commercial kitchen
Our shared-use commercial kitchen facilities are built for professional-grade production and compliance.
Professional cold storage (cool rooms & freezers)
Walk-in cool rooms and freezer storage ensure food safety and protect your cold chain within the shared kitchen.
Food photography and content creation spaces
Marketing is crucial in the delivery economy. Selected shared kitchen facilities provide areas suitable for product photography and content creation.
Compliant commercial-grade equipment
Extraction canopies, grease traps, commercial ovens and certified sinks are included in every shared-use commercial kitchen, ensuring regulatory compliance and operational efficiency.
The word on the street
Food delivery is the future and we want to capitalise on this current trend to give us access to this growing customer base. Operating a delivery-only kitchen space within Chef Collective will allow Seoul Bistro to rapidly expand, scale up and manoeuvre to cater for a larger customer base while keeping our upfront and operational costs at a minimum.
”Seoul Bistro
Rob McMullen
Co-owner
Your shared kitchen made to order
No matter what kind of chef you are or what restaurant you run, we can provide a shared-use commercial kitchen that suits your specific needs. Each space is generously outfitted with everything you need to get started. Feel free to bring whatever equipment you already love and use, and we'll help you fit it into your dream kitchen and cooking studio space. A shared-use commercial kitchen from Chef Collective provides far more than physical space – it offers a complete operational ecosystem.
Space
- Individually operated kitchens
- 12 month minimum contract
- 24/7 access keys
- Loading area
- Staff break room
- Restrooms, change rooms & showers
- Order processing and front of house counter
Services
- Common area cleaning & maintenance
- Waste Removal
- Grease trap cleaning
- Duct cleaning
- Pest control
- Security/ CCTV
- WiFi
- On-site support staff
- Kitchen design and CAD drawings
- Annual food safety certificate
- Public liability insurance
- Kitchen & contents insurance
Equipment
- Extraction canopy/ range hood
- Commercial cool room & freezer storage
- 3 compartment prep & wash sink
- Knee operated hand wash sink
- Airconditioning
- Grease-trap
- Equipment Connection
- Cooking appliances
- Kitchenware
Utilities
- Natural gas points
- 3-phase power
- 10 Amp power outlets
- Hot & cold water lines
- Fire safety system
- Ethernet connections
- Food waste & recycling bins
- Gas
- Electricity
- Water
One Kitchen; Many Brands
Our shared kitchen empowers you to run multiple brands at a minimal cost.
Innovative way to food creation
At the end of the day, a restaurant is a business, and a business must make enough money to survive. Restaurant owners across Australia have been trying to find innovative and new ways to keep their businesses afloat, especially during the course of a pandemic.
Inefficiency in the traditional restaurant model
With the traditional dine-in restaurant model, your commercial kitchen would be limited to cooking food for customers in the dine-in area and maybe for takeout orders. When the restaurant is closed, the kitchen is left unused - and if raw produce isn’t used in time, it gets thrown out. Countless other inefficiencies in the kitchen model have been accepted as a fact of life for decades - until now. The emergence of shared kitchen rental introduces a transformative approach, enabling a more dynamic and efficient utilisation of kitchen space. This innovation empowers businesses to meet diverse culinary demands while optimising resource usage.
One kitchen for multiple brands
Shared kitchens offer a solution to F&B business owners looking to modernise with shared kitchen rental. They can even be used to experiment with multiple brands within the umbrella of your business. One single cooking studio can be used for a brand centred around breakfast food, then transition into a more fine-dining restaurant popular in the evenings. At its core, a shared kitchen allows you to use your space in whatever way you desire to get the most value out of it.
/ Virtual Brands
Share more than just the space
All the different brands in your kitchen space could be serving wildly different clientele - but they can still share the same suppliers, equipment, and more. Doubling up on all these different aspects of your food delivery business not only saves money but also a significant amount of time and effort.
While your operator handles all the insurance, licensing, and complicated bureaucratic complications, you’ll be able to take advantage of everything a shared commercial kitchen space has to offer.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about shared kitchens
What are shared kitchens?
A shared kitchen is when several restaurant brands use a single kitchen space or cooking studio. They may choose to share suppliers, equipment, and more to make their kitchen processes more streamlined and optimised.
How many brands can I operate out of a single shared-use commercial kitchen?
There is no hard limit on how many brands you can operate out of a single Chef Collective kitchen space. However, we would say there is a sweet spot whereby different brands can share the same equipment and suppliers, without unnecessary complexity that may arise from a huge number of brands and food types.
Can different brands share the same kitchen equipment?
Absolutely. This is one of the key selling points of a shared kitchen space and has helped countless food delivery businesses find success in recent years. While this can definitely help increase your kitchen efficiency, note that certain cuisines may have dietary requirements that sharing equipment could complicate.
Open a shared kitchen today
