Pancakes without aggregators – Newspaper Kommersant No. 182 (7383) dated 10/03/2022

Against the background of the consolidation of food delivery services – the purchase of Delivery Club by Yandex – catering chains are trying to reduce their dependence on them. Thus, the Teremok network launches its own delivery. But now the interest of Muscovites in this service, unlike residents of other regions, has seriously weakened.

The fact that Teremok is launching its own delivery was reported to Kommersant by the company itself. While it is being carried out from nine establishments in Moscow, by the end of 2022 it is planned to extend it to all establishments in the capital, and by the spring of 2023 to points in St. Petersburg and Krasnodar. In total, 322 establishments should enter the system of own delivery. The demand for the delivery of ready-made food from restaurants and cafes increased in 2020 and continues to grow, according to Teremka, so the chain decided to develop delivery as a separate line of business.

The network added that Yandex.Delivery couriers will be involved in the delivery. This was confirmed in the service itself. The parties do not disclose the terms of cooperation. Most often, own delivery is carried out by couriers of third-party services. Burger King independently delivers orders only in the regions, and in Moscow – Yandex.Food couriers, clarified Kommersant’s sources. At the end of 2021, only five years after an unsuccessful attempt to create such a service, KFC decided to launch its own delivery again. The Vkusno – i dot chain, which replaced McDonald’s, does not yet have delivery even through third-party services.

Teremok decided to launch its own delivery to reduce costs and dependency on aggregators, but in practice this is a difficult business, believes Elena Perepelitsa, CEO of RestCon. The co-owner of the Rakovaya network, Yevgeny Nichipuruk, believes that for companies with a low check, paying a commission of 35% to aggregators is expensive. Since September 2022, the food delivery services Delivery Club and Yandex.Food have become one owner – the Yandex holding. Mr. Nichipuruk believes that this is unlikely to affect the commission of services, since “if it is increased a little more, then working with services will become unprofitable for restaurateurs.”

Recent trends in the Russian ready-made food delivery market and its prospects are assessed differently. Thus, according to Tinkoff Data, the number of orders for delivery from catering establishments in Moscow in January-September 2022 decreased by 31% year-on-year, and total spending – by 25%. The number of transactions and the total spending of Muscovites in Yandex.Food decreased by 59% and 46%, in Delivery Club – by 17% and 19%, Tinkoff Data added. The consumer market will temporarily lose hundreds of thousands of solvent customers who have left, and the demand for ready-made food delivery will decrease, Elena Perepelitsa believes. Yandex.Food did not comment on Tinkoff Data data. The Delivery Club told Kommersant that the market for the delivery of ready-made food and groceries continues to grow this year. They believe that the penetration of food delivery services is increasing throughout Russia, since in the regions it is still at a low level. Infoline-Analytics expects that the total capacity of the market for the delivery of ready-made food from restaurants, taking into account self-delivery and products from retail chains, will grow by at least 40% in 2022, to 1.2 trillion rubles. At the same time, as experts expect, the share of delivery from restaurants will decrease from 56% to 47% due to a serious growth in the market for delivery from retail chains.

Daria Andrianova