KT Enters the 20 Trillion Won Monthly Food Delivery Market... Providing Shared Kitchen Solutions

Collaboration with Shared Kitchen Okilo Kitchen
Customized DX Platform 'Smart Green Kitchen'

[Asia Economy Reporter Cha Min-young] KT is entering the domestic food delivery market, which has grown into a 2 trillion won monthly transaction scale market, by introducing a shared kitchen customized solution.

On the 11th, KT announced that it signed a business agreement with Kimchi Korea and applied its food and beverage (F&B) customized digital transformation (Digital Transformation·DX) platform, ‘Smart Green Kitchen,’ to Okilo Kitchen, a delivery-type shared kitchen opened in Chungjeong-ro, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul.

Okilo Kitchen, a shared kitchen business located in Chungjeong-ro, Seoul, has 31 kitchens, the largest number nationwide for a single branch in delivery commercial areas such as Sinchon, Gwanghwamun, and Seodaemun.

KT supports an integrated solution based on DX including environment, safety and quarantine, commercial area analysis, and energy. KT’s F&B specialized DX platform, KT Smart Green Kitchen, fits the efficiency and business viability of delivery-type shared kitchens. It is based on differentiated environmental control services and Giga infrastructure.

Based on big data and ICT solutions, it simultaneously provides a safe and hygienic cooking environment and convenience services for small business owners. By applying integrated control and air quality analysis solutions, it offers safe cooking, optimal air quality maintenance, harmful substance blocking, and quarantine for delivery workers (riders). It also enables the use of communication infrastructure such as internet and Wi-Fi along with store energy analysis, artificial intelligence (AI) kiosks, and store payment terminals (POS) systems.

Due to the impact of untact caused by COVID-19, food delivery has become the mainstream of dining out. According to the online shopping trend announced by Statistics Korea in January this year, the food service product group recorded transactions of 2.1988 trillion won, more than double compared to the same month last year (1.0518 trillion won). Self-employed people burdened by rent chose shared kitchens as an alternative instead of opening their own stores.

KT’s goal, based on Smart Green Kitchen, is to make the shared kitchen Okilo Kitchen a ‘delivery-type shared kitchen where small business owners, consumers, and delivery workers all want to cook, order, and deliver the most.’ Although Okilo Kitchen Chungjeong-ro branch promotes itself as a delivery-type shared kitchen, it is located in an office-dense area, so customers can dine in during lunchtime.

Starting with Smart Green Kitchen, KT plans to apply integrated DX platform-based complex control services in environment, quarantine, and safety not only to shared kitchens but also to multi-use facilities, franchise restaurants, newly built apartments, and various other spaces. The goal is to increase customer satisfaction with customized solutions considering the characteristics of each space.

Im Chae-hwan, Executive Director of KT AI·DX Platform Business Division, said, “KT, a digital platform company, hopes that Smart Green Kitchen, introduced for the first time to the shared kitchen Okilo Kitchen, will enhance the competitiveness of shared kitchens and bring innovation to the domestic dining industry,” and added, “In line with lifestyle changes due to untact, KT will leverage its DX capabilities to make customers’ lives more convenient and lead innovation in other industries.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.