To hear David Richer explain it, the success of NYC-based Orbital Kitchens has more to do with linear rather than orbital thinking.
David Richer, CEO and co-founder of Orbital Kitchens
“We centralize our demand so drivers are always heading straight toward consumers, dropping off multiple orders along the way,” the CEO and co-founder of the delivery-only multi-brand kitchen said in an interview. “Doing that allows us to do about seven and a half orders per hour per carrier, which is more than double what the third-party delivery providers average.”
That’s not the only thing the Orbital Kitchens is doing right. The brand uses its own software system that integrates everything from dispatch to forecasting. It operates one kitchen in each of its three NYC locations instead of micro kitchens for its 28 branded concepts, which allows for cross-utilization of labor and ingredients. It handles 3,500 deliveries a day. It has survived as a ghost kitchen when many others have in fact become ghosts.
“We’re doing about $30 million in our Union Square location, $10 million in our Williamsburg location, and $6 million in our Astoria location,” he said.
Mouth-watering revenues. And Richer has expansion plans, both in NYC and across the country.
“We’re opening our fourth location in the Bronx in about two weeks,” he said, “and another three or four locations after that. Then we hope to expand to Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Boston by the middle of 2026.”
The brand will be conducting a Series B fundraising round soon to pay for this progress. To date it has raised approximately $10 million in venture capital, according to Pitchbook, including a contribution from another delivery-only acolyte. “Travis Kalanick is one of our investors,” Richer said of the CloudKitchens CEO.
Orbital Kitchens uses its own fleet of drivers for 75 percent of its orders, while maintaining a begrudging presence on the third-party delivery marketplaces. “Vertical integration is key to our concept,” he said.
Consumers who scan its menu offerings find such options as Yamitsuki Ramen, Don Poke Fusion Poke Bowls, and Little Mint Comfort Thai Food. The emphasis on Asian foods is intentional.
“We do really well with our Asian cuisines,” he said.
Hawaiian barbecue is another popular order.
“That was one of our first brands when we launched in March 2020,” he said, noting that it filled an unmet demand in the city. “Surprisingly there wasn’t a lot of this cuisine before.”
When Richer and his co-founder Russel Yam opened for business, they did everything by themselves.
“Those first couple of months were pretty wild,” he said. “I was doing the deliveries and dispatch. Russell was in the kitchen. On our first day we did something like 75 orders. We quickly got up to 250 orders, 500 orders. We launched more brands. It just kept growing.”
Today Orbital Kitchens employs around 300 people. It remains a lean operation considering its volume of orders. And the brand has a plan to make things even more efficient.
“We’re launching our first automated bowl solution in our Brooklyn location in the fall,” he said. “We’ll be using robotics to build the orders, which will reduce labor costs and get our price of delivery down.”
It also has an expectation that its catering program will expand.
“We just hit our catering volume record last week,” said Ben Hecker, strategic growth manager. “We’re able to go to companies with different cuisines. One floor will get Thai, one floor will get Mexican, another will get sushi. We can handle all of that.”
The brand has launched a direct channel for catering, with hopes to extend it throughout its operations.
“Orbital catering dot com is a microcosm for what our direct platform for delivery will look like,” Richer said. “Right now the third-party catering platforms don’t allow you to use your own courier so we have to use theirs. But we already handle 90 percent of our own catering orders. We hope to have a direct channel in place everywhere in the next year and a half.”
There are other brands making inroads into multi-concept meal-delivery innovation, such as Wonder, Local Kitchens, and Kalanick’s own CloudKitchens. But Richer isn’t thinking of them as a template for his company.
“We want to be the Amazon of food delivery,” he said, noting that he sees growth potential in the suburbs of America, where meal delivery isn’t as ubiquitous as in cities. “We want to expand the market.”
And eventually, more than meal delivery.
“We feel like we’ve built infrastructure that will allow for delivery of services beyond food,” he said. “It will be bigger than just kitchens.”
