On Nov 22, 2021, a drizzling afternoon, GMBA students went to a company visit JustKitchen organized by Professor James Hsieh in Neihu. The executive vice president of operations of JustKitchen, Michael Liu introduced their company and business portfolios.

JustKitchen is operating a network of delivery-only commercial kitchens like ghost kitchens, virtual kitchens, cloud kitchens using a unique ‘hub and spoken’ model and marketing a portfolio of both proprietary and partnered food brands.

Students had realized the wealth of knowledge about the ‘Hubs and Spokes’ Model to optimize ghost kitchens’ unique and their advantages such as to get higher margins & efficiencies, efficient output, standardized kitchens, and preparation methods.  Hubs are for full-scale commercial kitchens that semi-prepared food items and Spokes are for smaller ‘fishing’ kitchens that complete meals for delivery.

JustKitchen currently operates 14 spokes and 2 hubs in Taiwan, with plans to have over 20 spokes by the end of 2021, and 35 spokes by 2022. They are also developing a proprietary POS software system for meal ordering, inventory tracking, customer data capture, and analysis. We learned how these techs are providing for ghost kitchens effectively. Moreover, they are planning the global expansion to the United States, Hong Kong, Singapore, Philippines, and Japan in 2021.

They have multiple brands such as partner brands with Smith & Wollensky, TGI Fridays Go, and Formosa Chang. JustKitchen’s In-House Brands like Go Lean, Bodyfit, BOBA MANI, etc., and also delivered through JustKitchen App. Surprisingly, they also have Pet Cuisine. It is impressive how they tailored their brands and customer varieties. Moreover, in order to grab the opportunities for outside investors, they are now public on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

After the Q&A session, JustKitchen’s CEO, Jason Chen received the special gifts delivered by GMBA. Finally, JustKitchen company visit had ended with delightful snacks like bread, fried chicken, bubble milk tea, etc., which were made by JustKitchen.