Casa Ranieri got its start as London’s first delivery-only, 100% gluten and dairy free gourmet restaurant. Since then, Casa Ranieri has partnered up with Quiqup to deliver top notch, succulent and healthy meals straight to dining tables all around London.
In this Q&A session with the team behind Casa Ranieri, we speak about the story behind the restaurant, deliveries in the food vertical, and how we’ve worked together to make real the vision of providing great food made from naturally gluten free ingredients!
When did the business start? How big is the team?
Casa Ranieri went live in April 2016, and from just the two of us in the first six months, we have now grown to a team of four!
What do you love most about running your business?
The amazing number of returning customers! Although we’re a delivery-only business and don’t have direct contact with our customers, we are receiving astonishing reviews on every channel. Half of our customers are returning patrons — when customers keep returning we believe they’re sending us a clear message of their love for our food.
What makes Casa Ranieri different from other providers in your business?
Firstly, standard restaurants tend to use deliveries as a side source of revenue, which means they often neglect to accommodate for the pain points involved for the end user — cooking the food for delivery in the same way as they would for consumption at the restaurant, for instance, so the meal doesn’t arrive at the customer’s table in great shape. In comparison, our meals are designed specifically for delivery.
Our second differentiator is our experience in the gluten free food industry. Health food trends like gluten or dairy free cuisine is a big trend now, but was unheard of 10 years ago. Our chef, Simona Ranieri, went gluten free around 16 years ago and was raised in her family’s restaurant kitchen, so she brings with her a lifetime of experience that others lack.
What are the top three challenges you faced in your business?
The first challenge were the obvious logistics difficulties in delivering high quality food. Figuring out how to manage temperature and food presentation, for instance, as well as the actual delivery process.
The second biggest block was customer acquisition, we were built on a delivery only model so we could invest money in the quality of the food that would’ve otherwise been spent on premises, tables, and staff. But not having a storefront also meant low visibility, a challenge which we tackled using mostly word of mouth.
The third obstacle was needing to educate the market about the value of our ‘naturally gluten free’ vision. A lot of gluten free products on the market today, from pizza to pasta and spaghetti are made with highly processed ingredients.
We are trying to bring to the table the idea that an astonishing variety of foods naturally come free of gluten,
and transferring the value of this vision to the market has been one of the stumbling blocks.
How has Quiqup helped you grow your business in the last months?
We think that a slow, steady and focused execution is key to growing a sustainable business built around customer satisfaction. So we need a reliable partner who we can count on for timely and accurate deliveries. At the same time, we need a company with the kind of flexibility to scale which has been key to our strategy design.We plan to open kitchens to cover every main London neighbourhood —
a solid and stable partner like Quiqup gives us the peace of mind we need when building our growth strategy.
How does Quiqup make your life easier? Can you share an example?
Outsourcing the whole delivery management system allows for a flexibility that’s crucial for a business in an industry that can be very unpredictable. As a matter of fact, when you have your own delivery team, you end up being short of drivers in peak times and then having them unoccupied when there are no orders.
Quiqup’s scale allows us to manage this uncertainty so we can focus on the quality of our food and service.
What would you say to others considering using Quiqup services to deliver?
I’d say — “Go for it!”,
it won’t only save you a big headache in managing drivers, but you’ll also be able to organise your deliveries with more efficiency and save time.
What are your plans for the future?
We want to extend our coverage to most of central London by opening 3 new kitchens next year. We want to become more visible to our potential customers and will need to be doubling the team again. To finance this, we are currently running our second funding round and looking for partners who share our values and vision, and, even more importantly, share our passion for quality food that’s affordable for everyone.
Interested in finding out more about how Quiqup helps retailers going online?
