71321Restaurant Box - Direct-To-Consumer Multi-Vendor Restaurant E-commerce, Tuition & Social PlatformClosedFeasibility StudiesInnovate UKThe Corona Virus has had a devastating impact on the hospitality industry. Since lockdown, in-restaurant dining has been prohibited with restaurants relying on takeaway collection and delivery or closing. Even once lockdown restrictions are eased, dine-in will be subject to strict social distancing at 25-50% of usual capacity. Long term trends of working from home where possible, avoidance of unnecessary public transport, ongoing social distancing legislation and restrictions on international travel mean homebased eating and entertaining trends are expected to continue and develop. Restaurant take-away is in high growth however demand is focused on peak meal-times with low margins meaning it is not a profitable category for restaurants with limited capacity for growth due to staff social distancing and peak fulfilment limits. Therefore restaurants will need to be agile and look to new revenue streams to survive and thrive in the post-Corona 'new normal'. Put simply if the customers cannot come to the restaurants, the restaurants need to innovate new ways to reach their customers. During the Corona lockdown, consumer behaviour has made a seismic shift. Leisure time, experience and entertainment is home based with 81% of the UK population saying they want brands to educate, entertain and engage them. Searches for 'how to cook' are up 600%. Demand for supermarket home delivery is up 40% and recipe boxes have boomed with Hello Fresh reporting a 68% increase in sales. In response, Restaurant Box is an exciting new destination marketplace for authentic at-home restaurant cooking and dining experiences. Through Restaurant Box customers can order prepped, portioned, fresh and authentic recipe kits from the best UK restaurants from street food, gourmet burger and artisan pizza kits through to Michelin starred recipe kits for local collection or overnight temperature-controlled delivery anywhere in the UK. Restaurant Box kits are listed with skill level, prep times and cooking times to suit individual cooking ability, ambition and convenience with real-time cook-along videos from top professional chefs to guide home cooks through every step of preparation, cooking and serve. Restaurants benefit from Restaurant Box by creating a new revenue stream that builds on the increasing demand for at-home cooking and dining experiences which can be prepped at off peak times. National overnight delivery gives restaurants exponential potential to build their new revenue stream with fair margins at retail prices on average 30% cheaper than dine-in creating demand for their business, staff and supply chains. _______________ Additional Info Restaurant Box is launching this month as the leading platform for at home restaurant experiences delivered nationwide. As the impact of COVID continues with incidence again rising in many parts of the country triggering new tiered lockdown and curfew restrictions in key cities across the UK and the prospect of further restrictions the importance of the high growth, high margin revenue model of the emerging at home category becomes critical to the future survival and success of restaurant businesses, supply chains and hospitality jobs. At a time when ongoing capacity and curfew restrictions are being enforced exacerbated by the continued work from home trend, absence of international tourism and social avoidance Restaurant Box has the potential to change fortunes with direct to consumer access to 66m customers at home nationwide. Since being awarded the initial Innovate Grant Funding Restaurant Box has: - Built a state of the art marketplace platform for at home restaurant experiences delivered nationwide launching this month as scheduled - Recruited 50 best in class restaurants from cult street food to 2 star Michelin fine dining - Appointed Karen Hanton MBE as (volunteer) Chairman of Restaurant Box - Appointed top hospitality professionals as Restaurant Box Ambassadors and Advisory Board members to shine a light on the at home opportunity and to lead innovation and best practice in this category. - Appointed a freelance Restaurant Box Executive Chef to consult to Restaurant Partners on best practice and standards of excellence in the development of their Restaurant Box Product - Engaged with the Hospitality Association to support and lead opportunity and recovery in hospitality sector - Identified event industry businesses with outstanding central kitchen and cold line fulfilment partners from the closed event sector to pair with Restaurant Box Restaurant Partners to support high growth and seasonal demand - Created an eco B2B packaging shop with no margin added to support our Restaurant Partners - Innovated a circular economy business model to support recycling and reusing of packaging. Restaurant Box is now ready to launch. We are seeking the Extension for Impact funding because the industry desperately needs our support and leadership.