Fruitas Holdings, led by food kiosk mogul Lester Yu, is making strategic moves in the rapidly growing cloud kitchen space.
The company on Thursday announced its acquisition of Fly Kitchen Inc., a cloud kitchen startup founded in 2020 by Kristopher George Yang and Marco Alquiros, with the aim of bolstering its presence and accelerating growth in this lucrative market.
Yang, son of McDonald’s Philippines chairman and founder George Yang, is president of First Georgetown Ventures.
Fly Kitchen operates four strategically located kitchens in key areas of Metro Manila, including Makati City, Pasig City, Mandaluyong City, and Quezon City. With a combined cooking area of approximately 200 square meters, these kitchens cater to a diverse range of over 10 brands.
Fly Kitchen has established strong partnerships with popular third-party food aggregators such as Foodpanda and Grabfood, enhancing its reach and customer base.
The acquisition of Fly Kitchen presents Fruitas with valuable opportunities to expand its cloud kitchen business and enhance operational efficiency.
Yu, CEO of Fruitas, expressed his excitement about the strategic alignment between the two entities.
“The purchase of Fly Kitchen is in line with our strategic objective to remain competitive in the digital landscape. This acquisition perfectly complements our existing activities and will post revenue and profit growth within the cloud kitchen segment,” Yu said.
Yu also emphasized the optimistic outlook for Fly Kitchen, consumer eating habits and the company’s commitment to strengthening its online presence.
“We are optimistic about the future of Fly Kitchen as we observe significant changes in Filipino eating habits. This acquisition will allow us to realign our company and bolster our online visibility,” he said.
Fruitas had already entered the cloud kitchen market in 2022 with the launch of its own cloud kitchen brand, Nube Kuxina. With the acquisition of Fly Kitchen, Fruitas is poised to leverage its expanded capabilities and market presence to capture a larger share of the evolving food delivery and online ordering landscape.