From Dee to Po to Gokongwei, this team up looks impressive.
After two years of staying home and relying on food deliveries to satisfy our cravings, most of us are just about ready for something new.
As restaurants closed their doors to dine-in customers, Kraver’s knew it needed to accelerate the development of a business model that could thrive during lockdowns and the foreseeable new norm. Founders Eric Dee, Victor Lim, and Victor Mapua created a way to turn a disastrous setback into a unique growth opportunity.
The trio founded Kraver’s Canteen in January 2020, just a few months before the world’s longest lockdown started. It quickly found success, housing several popular brands under one digital roof.
A successful seed funding round and a couple of years later, they’re ready to launch the next phase: The Kra-Verse Food Hall.
Culinary metaverse
Together with their partners Christopher Po of Century Pacific & Shakey’s, Lance Gokongwei of the Robinsons Group and CebuPacific, George Pua of Rico’s Lechon, Brian Cu of Grab, and Paulo Campos of Zalora, the founders of Kraver’s look to once again disrupt the food delivery scene.
After two years of painstaking development, they’re now ready to bring the entire dine-out experience to a whole new level and bring new value to food delivery via the world’s very first interactive virtual food hall.
“We thought of one line that would sum up everything we wanted to do with Kra-Verse Food Hall. I said, let’s add thoughtfulness,” Dee says. “Today, some consumers are getting the short end of the stick because everything is delivered for the same, if not higher, amount, but they don’t get to enjoy the ambience and service from a restaurant. We want to bring more value to every order.”
With deliveries being the new lifeblood of food businesses during this pandemic, Dee knew that F&B players needed to level up their delivery game and stand out. It’s sincere thoughtfulness that will set the great ones apart: being thoughtful in product offers, services, and most especially packaging. It’s this value proposition that they feel will give Kraver’s a competitive advantage.
Standout One Box At A Time Kra-Verse Food Hall is where the Kraver’s Group is launching six new brands of food. The team sourced top-of-the-line packaging materials with special self-heating packets and designed the most thoughtful way “to physicalize the cloud kitchen” to add more value to the whole experience.
All six brands will be purely for-delivery only and its unique packaging will allow the customer to experience the food so piping hot one would think the food was served straight from a brick-and-mortar restaurant.
“That’s where we will stand out,” Dee points out. “That’s where people will say, ‘Oh that’s Kraver’s, their packaging is so well-thought of’… We also want to make the packaging presentable enough so you don’t have to put it in a new plate. It’s something you’ll be proud to serve as is right then and there.”
They could have an infinite number of online restaurants to satisfy every craving consumers could ever have and ride every food trend that comes along. With their network of 10 kitchens in Metro Manila, and counting, the Kra-Verse Food Hall could serve as the most cost effective incubator space that will enable brands to go online and test new market areas.
“We are brand builders,” said co-founder Victor Lim. “We believe in our brands and it’s about building loyal customers for each brand.”
New offerings
Kra-Verse Food Hall is going to introduce six new brands including a much-awaited US franchise to the Philippines.
NBA legend Dwyane Wade’s D. Wade Burgers, which was created in collaboration with his personal chef Richard Ingraham, will soon be available locally. D. Wade’s signature burgers include the Classic (his personal favorite), Unreal (in partnership with UnMeat), LA, Miami, and Chicago. A Philippine-exclusive “Manila Burger,” a smash burger topped with a hefty slice of Kravers’ original LGL lechon baka, was also created.
The Food Hall is also introducing five other brands: CharSilog, Krave, I Love U Stew, Jok Time Lugaw, and Everything Gravy’d.
Through Kra-Verse, some of the best Filipino-American chefs who want to “have a footprint in their homeland” after making it big with Pinoy food in the USA. Several plans are already in the pipeline, some of which will be debuting this year.
There is also plans to create more cloud kitchens to expand their reach in the country.
For more information about Kra-Verse Food Hall, visit kra-verse.com and follow @kraversefoodhall on Instagram.
